Top European football league executives have reignited the debate over the international match calendar, with outspoken LaLiga president Javier Tebas claiming that the game is “heading towards disaster”.
Criticism continues to surround the introduction of the forthcoming 32-team Fifa Club World Cup (CWC) and expansion of the World Cup to 48 nations from 2026. The latest outbursts came a week after representatives of Fifpro, the global players’ union, met with football’s governing body in Zurich over the packed fixture calendar that has led to the threat of strike action.
European club football has also undergone change this season, the new-look Uefa Champions League increasing from six group-stage games to eight matches in a 36-team league.
Yet it is the dictatorial nature of Fifa’s decision compared with Uefa’s democratic approach that has angered key stakeholders, the heads of the Spanish, German and Italian leagues insist.
On a panel entitled ‘Challenge of European Football’ at the Spobis conference in Hamburg yesterday (Wednesday), Luigi De Siervo, chief executive of Serie A, said: “We as the leagues have not changed in many decades. It’s 38 games per season, or 34 for some like in Bundesliga. Uefa and Fifa, however, have chosen to go down different paths. Uefa decided to talk to us, Fifa has never done that. That is why with the players and union, we have gone down the legal route.”
Marc Lenz, co-chief executive of the German Football League (DFL), believes Fifa’s decisions will have three profound effects on the sport.
He explained: “First, there is the cannibalisation of media rights. And we are seeing that already. Second is the risk of distribution of revenue [from a bigger Champions League and expanded CWC] that will create further competitive imbalance and third is the scheduling aspect. We have a bit more flexibility with 18 clubs than other leagues that have 20, but nevertheless it creates severe scheduling issues.”
In an unprecedented move, European Leagues, LaLiga and Fifpro Europe last October formally filed a complaint with the European Commission accusing Fifa of failing to engage with them, of violating European competition law and abusing its position as a dominant competition organiser. Their argument has been strengthened by leading footballers such as Rodri, Alisson and Heung-Min Son all speaking out over player welfare.
Tebas has been the most vocal opponent of Fifa’s plans and he was in similarly combative mood in Hamburg, also reserving criticism for Uefa’s decision to support Fifa’s CWC expansion.
He said: “We are heading towards disaster. It’s true that when Uefa decided the new format of the Champions League, they set up a dialogue and we gave it our OK, but we said we’d have to look at the effects once it started.
“Then they [Fifa] added the Club World Cup. Uefa should have supported us and not committed to the creation of the Club World Cup. If I knew when I gave my OK to the Champions League changes that a year later Uefa was going to OK the Club World Cup, I would not have given my backing.”
Failure to address the issues, Tebas argued, will have a major financial implications for the health of European football within the next five years.
He continued: “In the short-term there is the issue of the distribution of the revenues from the Champions League which creates a bigger gap in our national competitions so they become less competitive.
“But in the medium- and long-term we are on our way to disaster. National leagues will have less revenues, less competitiveness and the super national competitions is where a series of clubs will be playing… Clubs often look at the now. As institutions, we have to look four or five years ahead… What are the economic consequences for this industry? We are creating more money for the players that already earn the most in the world.”
Defending Uefa’s position, Andrea Traverso, the continental governing body’s director of financial sustainability and research, said: “On the financial gap – this is a trend. There is a concentration towards the top of the pyramid. This accelerated with the pandemic. It is a challenge for us all going forward. Pointing the figure at Uefa and saying Uefa is the course of the problem is totally wrong. This imbalance occurs everywhere. It’s not just Uefa creating it.
“In the new format of the Champions League, the solidarity payments [to clubs not competing in European competition] have risen from €175m to €308m so up nearly 80 per cent. This clearly is a sign that Uefa is looking at those issues.”
European Super League dead?
The European league chiefs, in addition to the English Premier League’s director of international relations executive Mathieu Moreuil, were in agreement that Uefa’s revamping of the Champions League had dampened enthusiasm for a European Super League breakaway.
At the end of 2024, A22 Sports Management, the Madrid-based company behind the controversial plan for a European Super League, tweaked its proposal, now called the ‘Unify League’, that would feature 96 clubs
A year earlier, A22 revised its original idea for a breakaway continent-wide competition with a plan featuring 60 to 80 clubs across multiple divisions. However, only two of the original club backers, Real Madrid and Barcelona, backed the changes.
Traverso said: “Unify what? With one or two clubs, it is not even worth talking about at this stage. We have a new competition, and everyone is happy. Whatever discussions need to take place should take place together. Anti-democratic discussions did not work and will not work.”
De Siervo said: “The model proposed by Unify is connected to a few people having the power and that is against our European model. I think this idea is gone, it’s dead now. There is no chance for it to proceed because the big clubs are always the engine of these initiatives and the new format of the Champions League rewards them. Look at Inter Milan. They have already earned €95m from Uefa from this season’s Champions League. That is more than they would get from the national league.”
Moreuil added: “As long as we have good dialogue between the clubs, leagues and Uefa to make sure there is a sustainable international competition we are in a good place.
“The main threat is that we have clubs now that are not interested in domestic competitions and that is where the Super League is building some interest and support. The bedrock of European football is domestic competitions. We have to protect that at all levels. International competitions should be the icing on the cake. If international competitions become the cake, then we all have a huge problem.”