UEFA is to demand its member countries pledge their loyal to the status quo at Thursday’s Congress.
UEFA’s executive committee will present a motion to its 52 member associations asking them to pledge their support for the game’s current structures and competitions.
“I think we have to demonstrate what loyalty means and ask Congress for a statement showing what football is and what we believe in,” UEFA CEO Lars-Christer Olsson saids.
UEFA president Lennart Johansson said that in the light of the challenge posed bythe G14, a group comprising 18 of Europe’s richest clubs, he may reconsider his intention to retire in 2007.
“I don’t know if I will be making any announcement about that tomorrow,” said Johansson.
“With all this turbulence going on I want to see how things develop.
“I would certainly like to just go fishing and there would be many advantages to go and do what I want to do.
“But I like to think I have played a part in the development of this game over the past 19 years and I don’t like the thought of seeing all that destroyed.”
G14 is demanding compensation if their players are injured playing for their countries. It also wants representation within UEFA and more money from the game’s major competitions including the World Cup and Champions League.
The executive committee said the distribution of revenue for the next season’s Champions League would remain unchanged, with 75 percent going to the participating clubs.
UEFA also announced that any surplus to its Champions League revenue estimates of €750m would be distributed to clubs who fail to make it past the qualifying stages of the competition.
“I think there is already more than enough money being distributed to the top clubs, as can be seen from the fact that it is always the same clubs every year who make it through to the quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final,” Johansson said.
“We are not surprised with how the Charleroi case (which sees G14 backing Charleroi’s claim for compensation following an injury to one of their players on international duty) has developed because we know the mission of these (G14) clubs.
“It is to our advantage that they are now showing their cards, because we now know how they plan to fight and how we have to fight back.”
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