UEFA TAKES ON G14 FAT CATS

Last updated : 24 March 2006 By Ed

The Guardian:

Uefa yesterday threatened to expel rebel clubs from their domestic leagues if the G14 group of Europe's biggest clubs tries to form a breakaway competition. European football's governing body said that any clubs attempting to form an alternative to the Champions League, or to ring-fence entry to the lucrative competition, would be treated as pariahs.

The 18-club G14 group has drawn up an internal policy document laying out its strategy to secure the "introduction of more reliable criteria for such competitions, allowing them to effectively plan their sporting and business activity". The document, revealed in Saturday's Guardian, leaves open the possibility of "detachment of the top professional level from all remaining levels underneath, if this was agreed by clubs".

Without naming G14 specifically, Uefa yesterday insisted that, if steps were taken to form a breakaway competition, participating clubs would be excluded from the wider football community. "Uefa will not stand in the way of those who want to leave the family - which also means the domestic competitions - and who do not share our sporting values," it said in a statement backed by all 52 national associations at its congress in Budapest yesterday. "But you cannot pick and choose.

"We will leave the door open for clubs from smaller nations to play at the top level of European club football. We will not close the door, which seems to be what this self-appointed group of clubs wants to do."

The front line in G14's attack on the regulatory hold Uefa and Fifa have on the game is a court case to which it is a co- signatory alongside the Belgian club Charleroi. G14 and Charleroi made a joint application to a Belgian commercial court on Monday, challenging the governing bodies' right to insist players be released for international matches.