Coming Soon: A Bigger, Badder G-14 With 50 Clubs

The G-14 is set to completely revamp itself and is inviting around 50 clubs from 23 countries to join the new organization, reports Soccerex Business News. I'm not entirely sure who Soccerex is or what they do, but they quote G-14 communications manager Derek McGlynn saying "“the new organisation will have the same concept as the previous body - to protect the rights of its member clubs.” The 18 current members of the G-14 are on the invites list. So are AS Roma, Werder Bremen, AS Monaco and Sevilla. Not sure who the others are but the invitations are apparently based on the clubs' performance over the last five years.. I tried to email the organization from their Web site, but those emails bounced. But they're hoping to have a meeting with the invitees by year-end.

Twenty-three countries? Fifty clubs? The organization's goals are anything if not ambitious. One thing's for sure though: it's not just a European group anymore. Suddenly, Soccer Source's listing of the world's Top 25 clubs looks pretty prescient, if a little inadequate. Should have gone for 50 clubs. Oh well.

The G-14 was founded in 2000 and expanded to 18 clubs two years later. They kept the name because they wanted to be like the Big 10 college football conference. No, not really. I made that up. Current members are Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United from the Premier League, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and Valencia from the Primera División, Bayern München, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen from the Bundesliga, AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus from Serie A, Olympique de Marseille, Olympique Lyonnais and Paris Saint-Germain from Ligue 1, PSV Eindhoven and Ajax from the Eredivisie, and FC Porto from the Portuguese Bwin (sponsor) Liga.