Alemany details strong opposition to new UEFA/ECA European Super League proposal

Valencia CF director general, Mateu Alemany, attended a roundtable discussion entitled 'The future of European football and the new UEFA/ECA model,' in which he expressed his disagreement with a new European Super League format proposed for 2024. The conference was also attended by LaLiga president Javier Tebas and representatives from FC Barcelona and RCD Espanyol.

"There is great opposition to this format from all of the big leagues," Alemany said at the meeting organised by Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, explaining that "Not only will it kill domestic leagues, it will also lose interest as it is a longer, more complex competition. If it loses interest, then audiences will drop and it will fail."

“There is front-line opposition from the 'big' leagues to this project. In LaLiga, of the five possible Spanish clubs who could be in the 'SuperChampions' competition, only two agree with the project. There are clubs who have the potential to form part of the competition, like Valencia CF, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla FC, who are also against it. With the way the format has been proposed, we could have a case in which the winners of LaLiga don't play in this new Champions League competition."

Alemany noted that the initial problem with the proposal is the way that only UEFA and a limited amount of clubs from the ECA (known as BOARD) have set out the project.

“I was in Malta for the ECA general assembly. The ECA represents some 130 European clubs, but in practice that isn't the case. It had all been cooked up beforehand. It was spoken about as if UEFA were presenting a proposal to the BOARD of the ECA. It should have been the reverse of that: The European clubs should decide things in the general meeting, work out an agreed proposal and then discuss it with UEFA. These changes should be based on rigorous studies, and the ECA acknowledged in Malta that this wasn't the case."

"The third European competition intended by UEFA is there only to get votes from the smaller leagues. But this new version of the Intertoto Cup, with 64 teams, is unbearable. If it goes ahead, then there will be situations like we had years ago, when teams between sixth, seventh and eighth do the calculations so as not to qualify for the Intertoto Cup."

Alemany ended his speech with a series of questions: "Under the current model, the Champions League, LaLiga, the Premier League, the Bundesliga etc., all work well. Why change things that already work well, and which are compatible with domestic leagues? If we want to change the format of European football, why not make more knockout ties -which have more excitement, generate larger audiences and generate larger television income?"