Translated material
Choice Day
CSKA is torn between Michel Platini and G-14
Another conflict is brewing between UEFA and the informal community of G-14 clubs. The President of the European Football Union, Michel Platini, is actively pushing for the Champions League reform, according to which leading football powers could reduce representation in the main club tournament of the continent. G-14 decided to increase its ranks in response by sending out invitations to a dozen clubs to join its elite company.Among such teams as Celtic, Anderlecht, Sparta (Prague), Fenerbahce, Olympiacos, Levski, Basel, Maccabi (Haifa), Rosenborg, Red Star ", "Copenhagen", "Austria", "Wisla", "Sevilla" and "Steaua", official invitations came to Moscow - to the Russian CSKA, and to Kyiv - to the Ukrainian "Dynamo". The army does not yet know how to respond to the flattering attention from the G-14, and took a pause to think. In Kyiv, in turn, they decided not to get involved. “As far as we know, UEFA takes a tough position towards the G-14, and we do not want complications with the European Football Union,” explained Dynamo Kyiv President Igor Surkis. - I cannot allow negotiations with the G-14 to have a negative impact on the refereeing of Dynamo matches in Europe. The sports component of this association is also not entirely clear. We must not forget that G-14 has existed for many years, and so far not a single match has been held under its auspices.”
Of course, not everyone invited to the elite community will follow the Dynamo example. Some people cannot resist the temptation to gain the semi-official status of a European football grandee. And then the expanded G-14 will already pose a real threat to UEFA and the plans of its president.
There was silent confrontation before. UEFA studiously ignored the informal unification. In turn, the syndicate grumbled about the distribution of income from the Champions League - according to the G-14, the "big" clubs, which are the locomotives of the tournament and are of greatest interest to fans, sponsors and television, should receive the lion's share of the profits. This is what the community of elite teams fought for. Now the G-14 has a more realistic goal: to destroy Platini's plans to reform the Champions League.
In fact, the G-14 is fighting a windmill - for the leading football countries in Europe, nothing much will change with the proposed reform. In the tournament, many of them have the opportunity to get the same four places. According to the idea of the UEFA President, from 2009 the same 32 teams will participate in the group stage of the Champions League. 22 of them will get there directly, bypassing all sorts of selections. This is the current winner of the tournament, three clubs each from countries occupying places from first to third in the UEFA coefficients table, two clubs each from countries located in fourth to sixth positions, as well as one club from championships occupying 7th to 12th positions places. That is, the same England, Italy and Spain will immediately receive three of their representatives in the group tournament. Or even four, if the team from this country is the current winner of the Champions Cup.
One more club from these countries will be able to get into the group stage of the Champions League through the so-called “cup qualification”. This part of the reform is the highlight of Platini's plan. In his opinion, national Cups are now in decline - there is no previous interest in them from fans. But everything will change as soon as the winner of the domestic Cup gets the opportunity to play in the Champions League. To do this, the UEFA President proposes to take 16 winners of national Cups (places in the coefficient table from 1st to 16th), and hold two qualifying rounds, during which four winners will be identified who will qualify for the group stage of the Champions League.
The final six places in the group stage will be played out over three qualifying rounds among the 40 champions of those countries ranked 13th to 52nd in the odds table.
This is the most confusing part of Platini's plan. According to an intricate scheme, those who are eliminated from the Champions League qualifications fall into the UEFA Cup qualifications and continue to fight there. But this no longer concerns Russia: our country ranks seventh in the UEFA coefficients table with a real prospect of moving to sixth.
One line means a lot for our clubs. The few Russian team leaders who have understood Platini's plans unanimously claim that Russia is losing under the new system. Now our country has one firm place in the group stage of the Champions League, and another team is participating in one qualifying round, where it fights against passable opponents. According to the Platini reform, one place in the group tournament is retained. But the second team will have to make its way through cup qualification, that is, fight with the winners of the Cups of Spain, England, Italy, Germany... The chances of being eliminated from the tournament already at this stage increase.
But as soon as Russia rises to sixth place, it immediately receives a second representative in the group stage of the Champions League, plus a third can make it through the same cup qualification. Our clubs are quite capable of climbing one step higher in the coefficients table: the gap between Romania and Germany and Russia is now less than three points. So CSKA, who was invited to the G-14, now has something to think about: fight in an elite company against Platini’s plan, or, conversely, reject the offer and support the reforms of the UEFA president.