The five biggest clubs in England have held talks about breaking away from UEFA to join a new set up based in the United States.
While the European Clubs Association prepare to grab more Champions League places from UEFA, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea met up with Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross at the Dorchester Hotel.
Ross is the backer of the pre-season Champions Cup that has attracted Europe’s best side’s to the States in pre-season with 109,000 fans watching Real Madrid face Manchester United in Michigan in 2014.
Despite that attendance the only driver for these type of events is subscription television channels capable of delivering the type of audiences that advertisers crave.
In a move that many will see as deliberate the ‘secret’ meeting in London was captured by a photographer from The Sun to send a warning signal to English and European clubs.
Of the five clubs that met up with Ross only Arsenal have UK based owners with the other owners having little in the way of ties to European style football and the difficult notion of competition and relegation.
A new look competition to replace the UEFA run Champions League would require the backing of the FA and while a large cheque can buy most things an elitist invite only competition is unlikely to get the backing of domestic authorities.
Greed is clearly the obvious motivation but the recent spending of Chinese clubs has sent out a warning to European clubs that they no longer have a monopoly on signing players from around the world.
Despite the riches of the new television deal kicking in next season the loss of status and profile from playing in the Champions League will have a big impact on the biggest English clubs with Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool likely to miss out in next season’s competition.
Mark Warburton is expected to give his thoughts on the proposal tomorrow.
