As you may already know, the G-14, which actually has 18 members, is set to grow its numbers to 40 as part of a large-scale revamp. I had previously reported that 50 clubs from 23 countries--not all of them UEFA teams, either--would be invited. Apparently, that's inaccurate. The group will meet with representatives from all 40 clubs in Brussels, Belgium Nov. 13-14 "to explain the idea behind the organisation, as well as gauging the level of interest of the clubs [they] have invited," reports ESPNsoccernet.
Who are these 40 clubs? The list:
Arsenal
Liverpool
Manchester United
Barcelona
Real Madrid
Valencia
AC Milan
Internazionale
Juventus
Bayer Leverkusen
Bayern Munich
Borussia Dortmund
Lyon
Marseille
Paris St Germain
Ajax
PSV Eindhoven
Porto
-------the above are current members. Below definite new members:
Sevilla
Chelsea
Roma
Monaco
Werder Bremen
Benfica
Celtic
-------below the clubs who will also attend the meeting and may become members:
Anderlecht
Fenerbahce
Olympiacos
Basle
Maccabi Haifa
Rosenborg
FC Copenhagen
Austria Vienna
Red Star Belgrade
Steaua Bucharest
CSKA Moscow
Dinamo Kiev
Sparta Prague
Wisla Krakow
Levski Sofia
Say what you want about the G-14, if this comes to pass we won't be able to refer to them as an organization of rich clubs anymore. I wonder how they came up with the list? Do we know for sure that others weren't invited? Hopefully there will be some additional reporting on this and some of the abstaining clubs will give us their point-of-view--if they are indeed abstaining or just weren't invited. There are definitely some notable omissions. Rangers and Fiorentina spring to mind. Note also the absence of Swedish, Finnish, Croatian and Hungarian representatives. Also, if you're going to have teams from the Ukraine, Russia, Serbia, Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, why not Belarus, Slovenia, Bosnia, Ireland and the Baltics?
Those details aside, something big may be afoot here. The G-14 currently has a lawsuit pending against FIFA that could force FIFA to pay clubs for "use" of the clubs' players in international tournaments. This could effectively turn the World Cup into an Olympic tournament where countries only send amateurs or cheap professionals. We may eventually have a situation where the G-40 attempts to secede from their countries' associations altogether to form a type of permanent champions league. A few years from now, the entire landscape of professional soccer could be completely different than it is now. I suggest keeping an eye on these developments. I know I will be.
Nov 2, 2007
Introducing The G-40
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I wonder how they assembled the list as well. I think the 'definite new members', were selected based on their recent economic and CL successes. Those teams were selected with the G14 being a millionaires club philosophy still intact.
ReplyDeleteThe problem of the G14 has always been, that the UEFA didn't officially recognise them as proper representatives of European clubs. So in order to be better involved with UEFA politics, the G14 now plans to become a more inclusive and representative organisation, to do politics in the club's interests.
"We may eventually have a situation where the G-40 attempts to secede from their countries' associations altogether to form a type of permanent champions league. A few years from now, the entire landscape of professional soccer could be completely different than it is now."
There is absolutely no danger of this happening. A European league would always run in parallel to the domestic leagues. The appeal of the domestic leagues in most nations is higher than the interest in the Champions League. At the very least in case of the big five (Italy, Spain, France, England and Germany).
I, too, cast a skeptical eye on the separation of the G-14 from UEFA. I don't think it's in either's best interests. While the clubs hold a lot of clout - all of them are true titans of football - they do not work well as anything more than a lobbying organization, a sort of union, if you will. UEFA will still own the rights to the CL, including extremely lucrative TV deals that none of the clubs want to do away with.
ReplyDeleteI think there are no representatives from the poorer federations because there's no real way to represent them. For instance, in the Rep. of Ireland, the league is in relative shambles. The league winner from 2006, Shelborne FC, folded the following year after they started bouncing player salaries. They reformed as a relagated team, but still. The point is, is the G-14 seriously expected to look at such things and take the FAI seriously? I don't blame them for snubbing the lesser federations. They are lobbying for the rights of the large clubs, not minnows.
Onto the salary questions. I thought this whole issue sprung from Michael Owen's injury at the 2008 world cup and Newcastle not being reimbursed or assisted for the incident. Owen is (or was, maybe) a world class striker and the keystone of the team. Watching him fall and nothing being done to help Newcastle scared the big teams, and rightfully so. They started asking themselves "Hey, what happens if Kaka or Ronaldo goes down in the world cup?" The answer is that they'd be out of luck. And they don't like that, so I think they are looking for help in that area. Kind of like an insurance policy.