Platini's reforms face key test

UEFA president Michel Platini's proposals to revamp the Champions League face a key test today when league, club and player representatives meet at UEFA's headquarters in Nyon to discuss the planned changes.

The 16 members of UEFA's new strategy council will have a final chance to raise any objections before the new format is put to the executive committee of European soccer's governing body in Lucerne on December 1.

If adopted, the changes will be introduced from 2009. Promising to bring a wider international range of clubs into the competition as part of his bid for the UEFA presidency in January, Platini plans to guarantee more places to champions from outside the 12 highest-ranking countries.

He has also proposed a separate qualifying route for domestic cup winners who would be offered spots previously reserved for teams who finished high up in their respective leagues.

The latter idea has faced the strongest opposition from the top clubs and leagues, who asked for more time to consider the changes after Platini first unveiled them in Monaco in August.

Sources within the European Professional Football Leagues - which represents 25 of the continent's top leagues - told Reuters last week that they were still opposed to the inclusion of cup winners in the competition.

In September, 24 club representatives on UEFA's club forum gave majority support to the overall plan but there was opposition from bigger clubs, particularly to the cup winners idea.

Resistance is likely to be stiff again today when only big clubs are present. The strategy council's club representatives comprise Chelsea's Peter Kenyon, Milan's Umberto Gandini, Barcelona's Joan Laporta and Ajax's Maarten Fontein.

With the exception of Chelsea, three of those four clubs are members of the self-appointed G14, which represents 18 of Europe's top clubs and has also expressed opposition to the changes.

"We are of course against the cup winners idea, but there is a consensus forming on both sides and we are open to working with UEFA to finding a compromise," G14 general manager Thomas Kurth told Reuters this week. The G14 is holding its own meeting tomorrow.

UEFA has also indicated that there is still room for manoeuvre.

"The UEFA president knows very clearly what the core of the project is and that is to have more champions from middle-sized countries in the competition," Platini's special advisor William Gaillard told Reuters on Friday.

"Everybody knows we are not going to negotiate on that. The other things are the icing on the cake. Some national associations would rather have places for cup winners and others would rather delay any decision because of ongoing contracts. But we think the final details can be adopted by consensus."

UEFA Cup

The strategy council is also set to discuss less controversial changes to the format of the second tier UEFA Cup competition, also put forward by Platini in Monaco.

The main proposal involves creating a more "comprehensible" group stage involving 12 groups of four teams each with the top two qualifying for the knock-out stages.

The current UEFA Cup group stage involves eight groups of five teams, with the top three progressing.