The European Clubs Association (ECA) ended a well attended two-day meeting in Malta yesterday with chairman Andrea Agnelli, who is also the Juventus FC president, addressing the press at the Inter Continental Hotel in St Julian's.
Agnelli said the meeting was only the start of what the ECA is hoping to achieve by the year 2024, that is, when a new cycle of European club football will get under way.
He said that he is at the helm of Juventus, a club which, for a whole 96 years, has been led by his family.
He went on to say that what the ECA was after was the development of the game and the players from all the tiers of European Football, not just the five top leagues on the continent.
He said the Malta special assembly was called to kick start this debate. "It will be a long process and will take several months before agreement can be reached. Many thought that decisions had already been taken before the meeting. But their scepticism and fear was ruled out at the end of the meeting as it was made clear that our objective was to start this debate here," he said.
He added that there were still a lot of details and features to be discussed, but we have to start as we intend to have a successful reform for European Football, not about the big clubs, but about Europe.
"The whole principle of access is about addressing stability. It's why I talk about a principle of 40 teams remaining in the system. It's not about tier one (the Champions League).It's about from the quarter final of tier two (the Europa League) all the way up. It's about team number 16 to team number 40-50 in the club coefficients. Those are the clubs that carry the biggest risks in not being able to grow in a European system because of the current access system."
"If we want to find solutions for the good of European football we must take a step back and a step above, and try to see things from a different level. We as Germans, have to think: 'What are the issues of the Polish?'. We as Italians, we must think: 'What are the issues of the Greeks?'. We as French, we must think: 'What are the issues of the Belgians?'. We as Spanish, we must think: 'What are the issues of the Austrians?'.We should try to put ourselves in the shoes of each other and understand what is the best solution going forward."
"As far as the ECA is concerned, this is the start of the consultation process. There is a lot to be discussed and a lot of time to be dedicated to it. I want to make sure we find solutions together in the interest of European football," he said.
Also addressing the press were the three vice chairmen, former Man United and Netherlands goalie Edwin van der Sar, Darius Mioduski of Poland, and Aki Riihilahti of Finland who was also a player of Crystal Palace in England, Kaiserslautern in Germany and Helsinki of Finland, as well as Michele Centenaro, secretary general, and David Frommer, Director of the Commission for Public Affairs.
The three vice chairmen insisted that the ECA wanted to ensure increased participation in the competitions. They all agreed that this start was the right forum to continue discussing before eventually coming to its conclusion.
They all believed that the system which had been proposed will lead to more polarisation, adding that "if we had to continue like today, the wealth will only be distributed by the top clubs. Instead we would like to see more participation from teams in the lower tiers, thus giving them the possibility of growing in the system by gaining sustainability through more revenue being made available to them."