UEFA READY TO CURB POWER OF BIG CLUBS

Last updated : 30 March 2005 By editor

No one cares about a dead duck, not even its mother. She just flies away depressed. If Uefa are serious about re-gaining power over English clubs, then surely they need to look elsewhere than those blazered buffoons.

The Guardian reports:

‘Uefa's determination to assert its authority on European football will continue after tomorrow's disrepute hearing for Chelsea when from next month it attempts to rein in the continent's most powerful clubs.


‘The European governing body's executive committee is set to approve a new blueprint for the game at a meeting in Tallinn on April 20 to 22, a key element of which will be advice for national associations on how to exert some control over powerful leagues.


‘Uefa has grown alarmed at the rise in status of club-run leagues such as the Premiership at what it considers to be the expense of grass-roots football and national teams. Though the Premier League prides itself as the most redistributive league in Europe, there is a feeling at Uefa that all of its subsidiary bodies such as the Football Association require greater empowerment.

‘Uefa considers the "American vision" of closed leagues to be anti-competitive and is concerned by the increasing strength of the G14 association of Europe's premier clubs, which may covet the transatlantic format.’