Creating a new system to regulate the finances of Europe's best and wealthiest clubs during the global financial crisis is UEFA's top priority in 2009.

European football's governing body said yesterday how to control the debts and spending of clubs which want to play in the lucrative Champions League.

UEFA's other main goals for the year are preparing for the 2012 European Championship and protecting the careers of teenage players, UEFA general secretary David Taylor said.

"It will never be far from the top of the agenda during the course of this year," Taylor said after a two-day meeting of UEFA's executive committee.

"The indications we are getting from the vast majority of clubs are such that in these times of global economic crisis, these initiatives are very well timed."

Taylor said the UEFA executive discussed using fewer than eight stadiums for the Euro 2012 tournament, scheduled to be played in Poland and Ukraine. The preparations have been dogged by delays in stadium, transportation and hotel projects.

Taylor said politicians and officials from Poland and Ukraine presented their progress reports to UEFA at a meeting Wednesday.

UEFA, meanwhile, is determined to stop clubs jeopardizing their future by running up debts.

The executive committee accepted a progress report from an expert team of lawyers, academics and business consultants which is examining options such as salary caps to restrict clubs' spending and limit their debts.

Taylor said the group was working privately before UEFA revealed its preferred option for a system of issuing financial licenses to clubs. Having a license would be a condition of being allowed to play in the Champions League or Europa League, which succeeds the UEFA Cup next season.

"This is obviously a subject which is close to (clubs') hearts," he said. "It is a complex and delicate matter. It will be a consultation. It won't be imposed from above."

UEFA will listen to the views of the European Club Association - an elite group of more than 130 clubs from each of the 53 footballing nations in Europe - which has its first annual assembly 9-10 February in Geneva.

Taylor said UEFA hopes to create a formal licensing panel at a March 9 meeting of its football strategy council, which includes representatives of clubs, European leagues and players' unions.