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By Darren Ennis LISBON, Oct 25 - UEFA president Michel Platini's
plan to award Champions League places to domestic cup winners
looks set to be shelved in a compromise with clubs and leagues
opposed to it, sources involved in the talks said on Thursday.
Following opposition from Europe's top clubs and leagues to
admitting cup holders into European soccer's top competition,
Platini is expected to defer his plan in return for support in
allowing lesser nations to earn places through their leagues. "The principle was always to get more countries involved and
more champions. The cup idea was the one UEFA thought was best.
But if we achieve the principle then we have achieved our goal,"
a senior UEFA source told Reuters. "How we do that has always been open to discussion. That's
why when we received opposition, we asked for alternative
proposals," he added. "Yes, it seems now that there is a huge body of opposition
to the cup idea, but if we can reach a compromise then we will,"
another UEFA source said. The European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) delivered
their alternative proposal to Platini on Monday. A senior source
within the EPFL said the organisation stated that the cup idea
"was non-negotiable". G14, which represents 18 of the most powerful clubs, three
of which are members of UEFA's influential strategic committee,
have also rejected the cup idea but are said to back a deal
which allows more champions and national representatives. The opposing groups believe that allowing cup winners into
the Champions League would devalue the competition. The final blow to Platini's plan, which he had hoped to
implement from 2009-10, came in a communication from Europe's
six biggest associations in which they also backed more entrants
into the multi-billion euro competition but said they wanted the
cup winners plan postponed. "We wish that UEFA grants to the federations a reasonable
delay of reflection and of internal consultation to allow for
them to look serenely for a position of consensus," said the
communication seen by Reuters and issued by the football
associations of France, England, Germany, Italy, Spain and
Portugal. DEAL DETAILS According to sources involved, this reflection period is
seen as being at least two years with a view to returning to the
issue of the cup winners in time for the next series of talks on
how the competition should be run. The exact details of a deal involving UEFA, the clubs,
leagues and associations have yet to be hammered out, but it is
envisaged that at least 12 more places will be made available to
lesser nations with around half of those being champions. A number of extra automatic places in the lucrative group
stage is also likely to be set aside for what UEFA describes as
"medium size" nations, while agreement to grant automatic entry
to a third team from England, Spain and Italy could also be met. In an unusual twist, the leagues and clubs look set to agree
to Italy, where the cup competition is run by the league and not
the federation, awarding a Champions League place to its cup
winners which it wants to do.
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