UEFA give frosty response to G-14 proposals

Simon Evans

The G14 group of elite soccer clubs has called on UEFA to introduce a "fair and open" tender for the marketing rights to the Champions League.

But the call met with a frosty response on Tuesday from UEFA chief executive Gerhard Aigner who said it was "neither needed nor helpful".

While focusing on increasing their role in the game, G14's membership was, however, unable to increase its membership after it failed to agree on criteria for expanding the group.

Clubs including England's Chelsea and Arsenal, Scotland's Celtic and Rangers, French club Lyon and Spain's Deportivo Coruna have expressed interest in joining G14 but no decision will now be made until their next meeting in Monaco in August.

The marketing rights to the lucrative Champions League run until 2003 and are owned by UEFA's marketing partner TEAM and G14 said they wanted UEFA to make sure there was a free tender for the next deal.

"G-14 calls upon UEFA to introduce a fair and open process for the tendering of the Champions League marketing contract," the group said in a statement.

"Specifically, it is essential that existing commitments do not deny football the opportunity to benefit from a competitive tender process. G-14 believes there must always be transparency and fairness in the game," it said.

But UEFA chief Aigner said his organisation was considering the issue and had no need for advice from G-14.

"We do not need guidance from G-14 on the future of the marketing strategy for the Champions League," Aigner told Reuters on Tuesday.

"UEFA has been actively considering this issue and we will be making a further announcement in the near future. We have shown a real commitment to the continued success of the Champions League and we are determined that this will continue into the future," added Aigner.

"We know this marketplace extremely well and public pronouncements such as this from G-14 are neither needed nor helpful".

The G-14 group, which formalised its association six months ago with a constitution and offices in Brussels, includes giants of the game such as AC Milan, Juventus, Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Ajax. But it appears split over the issue of expansion.

While a working group is looking at the criteria for expansion, progress is hampered by the need for all 14 member clubs to agree on each decision

A G-14 source said that while some clubs such as Manchester United, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid were enthusiastic supporters of expansion others such as Barcelona and Marseille were keen to preserve the current structure.