Is UEFA Killing Football?
In recent months story after story has emerged reflecting the struggle for power and money amongst the big men and big clubs of Europe. Appeasement of the G14 over the last decade has been coupled with recent courageous stands against these eighteen clubs who think the purpose of football is not to entertain, but to produce obscene profits.
But UEFA still seems to be missing something in their mission statement:
?UEFA?s core mission is to promote, protect and develop European football at every level of the game, to promote the principles of unity and solidarity, and to deal with all questions relating to European football?
Two stories from the past twelve months seem to illustrate this problem perfectly.
Minimum Stadium ?Standards?
Yes, some stadia in Eastern Europe (and indeed the Irish League) leave much to be desired in terms of comfort and safety, and UEFA has taken steps to prevent these being used, in European competitions at least, through a ground ?licensing? scheme designed to ensure minimum standards. However, the latest suggestions from the UEFA big-wigs have little to do with fans (or their comfort and well-being), and more to do with maintaining the current power-base.
The proposed modifications would see a minimum capacity of 30,000 for any team hoping to compete in the Champions [sic] League. Think about, 30,000 seater stadiums may be two-a-penny amongst the top English, German, French, Italian and Spanish clubs, but not so much elsewhere in Europe.
The biggest ground in the Irish League (here in Northern Ireland) is Windsor Park, home of one-time European Cup quarter-finalists, Linfield, with a capacity of 14,000. South of the border, in the Republic of Ireland, Shelbourne came within a whisker of qualifying for the Champions League group stages just a few seasons ago, playing in a stadium holding about 10,000. They could conceivably (with certain provisos) play at Lansdowne Road or Croke Park (the two largest stadiums in Ireland), but this may be to the detriment of the fans (poor atmosphere in a quarter-full ground), the club (having to rent when they already own a ground) or indeed the team (a-la Arsenal?s Champions League performances at Wembley a few years ago).
Elsewhere, the Scandinavians have come on leaps and bounds in terms of competing with Europe?s Elite; Rosenborg claiming a number of scalps in the late-nineties and Lillestrom continuing where they left-off. Progressive clubs such as these could be limited to the UEFA Cup, putting a severe financial strain on a League which plays on through extremely harsh weather conditions and large amounts of travelling. Where would the likes of Carew and Riise be able to show themselves off to obtain moves to better Leagues? Where would the money lost by removing these revenue streams come from?
And don?t be getting too smug if you follow the Premiership. If, say, Wigan or Bolton had maintained their early season form and pushed into that fourth Champions League spot, they too would be forced to play away from their sub-30,000 (though not sub-standard) grounds. In Scotland, Aberdeen say, would have to relocate their ?home? matches to Glasgow or Edinburgh. Likewise other middling Leagues such as Holland, Belgium, Switzerland and Portugal. Worth it? I think not.
The UEFA Under-21 Championship in its Own Right
The UEFA Under-21 Championship is a valuable competition for every European nation. It allows for the blooding of young (potential) future internationals and it allows smaller nations? players to put themselves in the shop window (affording small clubs a chance to earn valuable transfer cash). It is also a costly business, with the crowds and TV revenue attracted usually far short of covering costs.
Such were the costs involved, that the Irish Football Association did not enter a Northern Ireland Under-21 team into the tournament until 1998. The successes were rapid for the new team, with early victories over Germany and France, and a Presidents Trophy success. The players produced by this new team have included Damien Johnson, Roy Carroll, Steven Davis (all Premiership regulars) and, of course, David Healy.
In 2004 however, the Northern Ireland Under-21 team was put on hiatus due to lack of funds. The IFA scraped together enough money, largely through a favourable World Cup Qualification draw, to reform the team in time for the 2006-2007 UEFA Under-21 Championship. Now, here comes the kick in the teeth.
For previous qualification campaigns, the Full and Under-21 teams have played in parallel tournaments, with the Under-21 match held the day before the ?main event? World Cup/European Championship qualifier. For the 2006-07 series this has been changed completely. Where previously Full and Under-21 teams have been able to share flights, accommodation, coaching-staff and training facilities, and the fans have been able to take in two games in one away trip, now the competitions will run completely separately. Inevitably, attendances (by both home and away fans) at these matches will suffer, fewer resources will be allowed for the young teams to prepare and smaller international associations will have to foot even heftier costs.
What?s even worse still, is that this new format may well limit the number of competitive internationals played by Under-21 teams. The UEFA ?coefficient? forces play-offs amongst the weaker teams before allowing them into the qualification tournament proper. In April/May this year Northern Ireland must face Liechtenstein over two legs, and for one of these teams, their 2006-07 UEFA Under-21 Championship will be over before the previous edition has been completed (the 2006 Finals taking place in Portugal in May-June).
So why have UEFA decided to divide Full and Under-21 tournaments? Well it is to allow the Under-21 Finals to take place in odd years, thus avoiding a clash with the senior European Championship or World Cup, which they believe will aid the Under-21 Finals tournament as a competition. Fine and dandy for an established nation, but a potential nail in the coffin for the likes of Northern Ireland or Liechtenstein?s young player development!
So What Now?
Well, UEFA have made steps in an attempt to stymie the power of the G14 in recent weeks, but it?s what they did/allowed to happen over a decade ago that continues to strangle football below the level of the ?Big 18?. The Champions [sic] League has developed into a competition where there is no romance anymore. Small clubs play small clubs in July preliminaries, only to find their next step blocked by a slightly bigger small club, who in turn finds their way blocked by a club that finished fourth in La Liga. Long gone are the days when Benfica or Roma, Liverpool or Ajax, Arsenal or Borussia Dortmund could be seen running out on an Ulster pitch for a competitive match. In 1967 Linfield qualified for the quarter-finals of the European Cup, in 1974 Glentoran made it to the same stage of the Cup Winners? Cup (another tournament killed-off for money), but this is not likely to happen again under the current format of European Competition.
Put the romance back into European Competitions, make them straight knock-out affairs, for Champions, Cup winners and League runners-up only, without endless qualification and preliminaries. The G14 can break away if they want, they will soon find themselves starved of interest come the time of ?100 into every match or ?20 on pay-per-view TV. Enough players will hopefully have the morals to reject ?150k a week in favour of representing their country? if not, European football, in my opinion, has no future.
NB: For anybody interested in a laugh at the nothingness and management speak of UEFA?s mission statement and the so-called ?Vision Europe? scheme, visit
http://www.uefa.com/uefa/KeyTopics/Kind=8388608/index.html and http://www.uefa.com/uefa/aboutuefa/index.html.
About the author Jonathan Dewart
A lifelong Liverpool and Northern Ireland fanatic, Jonathan "Dewartie" Dewart has a special view of football, clouded by his own biases and football myopia. He is not ashamed of this in any way.
I was staggered to realise yesterday that West Brom’s ground, while hardly modern or ancient at the same time only holds 27,000. They’d not be suitable under these new rules, but a few seasons and they could through together a string of results that would put them with a chance of a UEFA cup place. That must be the same for many sides in the European leagues, even Spain. And when it comes to Ireland and otehr countries, even sillier.
I also had no idea about the U-21 stuff. Kudos, an excellent article.
It almost seems that UEFA and G14 are two faces of the same medal. They both favour big clubs or nations even if their manners are different: UEFA is subtle by imposing little criteria that block the small clubs while G14 is flamboyant in their requests.
Doesn’t it remind you the good cop bad cop routine we saw in the tv shows? The bad cop threatens to take away the already small crumbs they give while the good cop says ‘it is better for you to accept my deal with me because they wouldn’t be so generous’.
If I was the small clubs I would do something to force the G14 to stick to their wishes forming a 18 team league. Without a Champions League and without some national players do you think the G14 clubs would profit (since this is what they want)?
No I do not think so it is better to let the good cop do the dirty work for you by eliminating the smaller clubs and guaranteeing you a lot more than 34 matches a year.
[...] On the same night as the senior squad take on Finland, the Under-21s, in a blinding illustration of the ridiculousness of UEFA?s new Under-21 format, face Romania in Bucharest, a match for which there is little hope of a big turn out as those fans who might have travelled for this match will no doubt be in a drunken stupor somewhere in Scandinavia! Still, this match is perhaps more important than that for the senior?s. It is a qualification match for next year?s UEFA Under-21 Championship, and quite rightly some of the younger members of our full squad may well be included to increase the chances of success. Good luck lads! [...]