26 March 2019
Joined by ECA Vice-Chairman and AFC Ajax CEO, Edwin van der Sar, ECA Board member and AC Milan CEO, Ivan Gazidis, as well as ECA General Secretary, Michele Centenaro on the panel at this afternoon’s press conference, Andrea Agnelli spoke about the two key issues currently facing the European Club Association. They were firstly, the FIFA Club World Cup revamp set for 2021, which Agnelli confirmed that the ECA were currently opposed to. The second issue was the outlook for the European post-2024 footballing landscape, to which the Juventus President was keen to praise the transparency of UEFA in the process, which is still to be finalised.
FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP REVAMP
“We have a very strong position and it has to be put into a context regarding conversations with FIFA. We are clear with FIFA on our view of the Club World Cup, we all agreed the format could be revamped, as it stands today it’s not very satisfactory - Agnelli continued - There are a number of issues that all fall under the international match calendar, competitions should be fixed and defined until June 2024 and fully drawn up until then as they already are, in order to be better aligned with club football, seeing as clubs are the main contributor. Then we have to look at how the footballing landscape could look beyond 2024. Currently FIFA’s decision to revamp its Club World Cup starting from 2021 is one ECA cannot support.”
Agnelli reiterated that the clubs won’t be taking part in the 2021 Club World Cup right now as it stands in its current format, however acknowledged that there was the common goal with FIFA that the Club World Cup should be revamped, and that ECA will still look to engage with the governing body.
POST-2024
Andrea Agnelli described the process of defining the post-2024 European competitions as “the perfect kick-off” following the meeting with the UEFA Executive Committee.
“I must praise UEFA, as we have achieved the greatest level of transparency that one can achieve. The vision that was jointly presented to UEFA and ECA requires a lot of work to be done and nothing yet has been decided.” Agnelli added - “We want to make sure more teams and national associations have the chance to participate in a European system and allow them to properly grow, it is about keeping the dream alive in a growth pattern so that participating in an international competition is about developing a club.”
Edwin van der Sar added: “Football is played at different levels, of course the Champions League is the holy grail and everyone wants to play there. However, there are a lot of other competitions and the countries need to look after their leagues. We want to ensure the future of European football after 2024."
Ivan Gazidis also stated: “We’re all thinking about the future of the game and it’s very significant and meaningful that the first proposal was shown not only to UEFA, but also to ECA and this bodes well for the future of football.”
Other issues discussed were looking at reducing international release windows, an overall reduction on the amount of games that are played throughout the season, and the possible implementation of mandatory rest periods for players.
