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By Simon Stone
BBC Sport in Geneva
The changes to football are most likely to be delayed or scrapped.
Uefa was suggesting a Champions League containing four groups of eight clubs to the eight groups of four.
The proposals came after pressure from theatres under the”big five” – England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France.
However no consensus has been attained.
Relegation from the Europa League and promotion and the Europa League two, a third party competition which commences in 2021, had also been indicated to prevent the Champions League appearing to become a sealed contest.
Ajax chief executive Edwin van der Sar was among the most outspoken demanding shift, pointing out the current qualification system might have resulted in his team having no European football whatsoever later August, though they arrived within seconds of getting to last year’s Champions League final before Lucas Moura’s striking injury-time goal for Tottenham at Amsterdam.
The probability is that anything implemented by 2024 will be much less radical than envisaged, while the clubs stay dedicated to change.
Ex-Netherlands goalkeeper Van der Sar was present in Geneva on Monday for its first evening of a two-day meeting of Europe’s leading clubs, where England’s”big six” clubs – Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester United – were represented.
Sources have said solving the Ajax”issue” is relatively simple and could be reached by enabling all semi-finalists to the group stage and introducing a play-off to its fourth-placed teams at the two lowest-ranking leagues who get four automatic set phase slots – currently Italy and Germany.
A much greater barrier to implementing the suggested changes is concern such as the Premier League, that when the strategy of Uefa results in greater television revenue for their rivals, it is going to come at the expense of their competitions.
There is debate about this, however, the opinion is widely held and places clubs in these competitions in loggerheads with sockets in the Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium and Scotland, among others, where big-name clubs are limited in their capacity to advance because access to TV cash from their own national rivals is strictly restricted.
They feel unless action can be taken quickly, the gap will end up being so broad, it will not be bridged.
Last year, the Premier League’s bottom club, Huddersfield, earned #96.6m TV money independently. In 2018, Scottish champions Celtic’s overall income, including prize money from the Champions League, was #101.6m, a sum which has been decreased markedly in 2019 due to their failure to qualify for the group stages of Europe’s elite competitors.
It’s the lack of consensus that led to Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin cancelling the crucial tri-party discussions (involving Uefa, the championships and the clubs) that were expected to be held in Switzerland on Wednesday.
These discussions are put back with chances being that they may not be held until the season’s close.
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