Category: News
Date: 31.03.2006
Printable version
In an interview to be broadcast on 91Èȱ¬ News 24's Extra Time on Saturday (1 April), the Chief Executive of UEFA says his organisation will not talk directly to a body that represents the most powerful clubs in Europe.
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Lars-Christer Olsson is asked by presenter David Eades how he feels about the relationship between UEFA and the G14, which represents 18 of the richest football clubs in the world including Real Madrid, Manchester United and AC Milan.
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Hee says: "We don't have to talk to the G14 but we will talk to the clubs.
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"There's no room for accommodation - we are throwing lots of [olive] branches to the clubs but not to the G14."
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The G14 has given its backing to a court case which will decide whether clubs should be compensated for players who are injured while playing for their national teams - and it has also hinted it might consider a break-away super league.
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UEFA said recently that the court case was "about the future of the European game and the future of national teams. It's a question ultimately of whether we have a FIFA, UEFA, or an FA or whether the game is controlled by a few fat cats."
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Olsson adds: "When we talk to the individual clubs their views are not as militant as when they are coming from the [G14] office in Brussels.
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"It's creating the conditions for a war rather than trying to find agreements.
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"When we talk to the individual clubs it's different. Most of the clubs are saying 'we don't want to break away' but then they change their statutes to say that now we should be able to organise a competition.
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"Now they have to show their real cards."
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The super-clubs of the G14 generate enormous revenues and the organisation argues this should give them more say in how the game is run.
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However Olsson believes the G14 should be more generous in how those revenues are distributed.
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He says: "It's because of all those grassroots and volunteers who are finding out, finding the talents [that] the clubs are benefiting from, what the foundation of the football pyramid is providing them with, and they are not prepared to have any distribution."
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He continues: "Our opinion is that the money generated from the final rounds [of the Champions League] should be distributed to those who are actually doing the grassroots work where the big clubs are benefiting and the money is not generated by the big clubs.
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"[They don't want a piece of the pie] they want the entire pie.
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"If UEFA hadn't been strong and hadn't acted, there would be no distribution, not even to the top professional clubs in the smaller countries.
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"We are actually the only guarantee for a proper distribution model.
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"If you take the club competitions like the Champions League, more than 80 per cent of the money goes to the 32 participating teams in the final rounds. That is not too much to say that 20 per cent should go elsewhere."
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Lars-Christer Olsson will be on Extra Time on Saturday 1 April at 10.30am, and Sunday 2 April at 11.30pm, on 91Èȱ¬ News 24.
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Notes to Editors
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91Èȱ¬ News 24 has a weekly reach of 5.7 million viewers and a monthly reach of just under 11 million viewers.
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NL
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