Serie A has become the latest league to vote against UEFA’s plans for the Champions League although Juventus and four other clubs refused to support the motion of dissent.
Plans to change the group phase from six matches to 14 is being met with resistance across Europe with the other significant proposal being that the top five teams in each group automatically qualify for the tournament the following season.
If approved the significance of domestic leagues would be greatly devalued with the European Leagues organisation leading the campaign to halt the changes while attempting to restore the Champions League group stages are more open to national champions.
Yesterday Serie A stated:
The Serie A General Assembly approved yesterday, with a significant majority, a resolution against the UEFA reform proposals for European club competitions post 2024. Out of 20clubs, only one voted against the resolution (Juventus) and four abstained (Inter Milan, Roma, AC Milan and Fiorentina)
The resolution issued at the end of the General Assembly states: “We firmly believe that qualification for UEFA club competitions should be based only and exclusively on clubs’ performances in the domestic championship because any semi-closed model will endanger the value of national competitions. We also express our concerns about the economic and competitive impact on Serie A of this UEFA reform.
We truly hope that UEFA will take our observations into consideration and will work together with the European Leagues to implement a different model that will preserve the sustainability of both national championships and European competitions”.
The top four clubs in Serie A go straight into the group phase with Atalanta enjoying that perk while semi-finalists Ajax face two rounds of qualifiers. The SPFL have yet to comment on the plans which appear to offer no benefits to the Scottish game..
On Tuesday the draw will be made for the first two rounds of the Champions League qualifiers with Celtic having to get through four rounds to claim one of the four places open through the ‘Champions Route’.