G14 Set to Get a Whole Lot Bigger
By: Daryl | September 15th, 2007
I’m not a fan of the G14. The affiliation of top European clubs (Manchester United, AC Milan and Real Madrid etc) is basically an elitist pressure group, looking after the interests of a select few at the expense of everybody else. Their recent announcement that they will snub Michel Platini’s proposal to open up more Champions League places for clubs hailing from less glamorous countries. Their argument is that it will reduce the quality of the Champions League. The truth is that they’re addicted to Champions League money and will cling it to it like a junkie to a crackpipe. The other reason I dislike the G14 is that there are actually 18 of them, and soon there’ll be closer to 50.
While there were indeed 14 clubs when the G14 was founded in 2000, it’s since expanded to 18 without changing the name.
The founding members in 200o were: Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Liverpool, Man Utd, Marseille, PSG, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Ajax, PSV, Porto, Barcelona, Real Madrid. With four new member added in 2002: Arsenal, Lyon, Bayer Leverkusen, Valencia.
Now the G14 are talking about expanding to around 50 clubs, probably including the likes of Chelsea, Celtic and Rangers, in an effort to make the group more representative and smooth relations with UEFA. Presumably they’ll have a new name, as it would be just plain ridiculous to have a 50 member group called G14.
I’m torn on whether this is a positive or not. Certainly it would be good for the G14 to represent more than just the super-rich elite, and give clubs a powerful voice to converse with governing bodies. But at the same time a 50 member group could be too powerful (it could easily threaten the long touted breakaway European Super League for example) while still failing to represent Europe’s smaller clubs, who are arguably more in need of a voice than anyone else.
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Everybody’s talking about the G-14’s stance on club versus country, but what else has the G-14 been opposed to recently? Champions League reform, specifically reform to include cup winners.
I don’t think that this move threatens a move to a European SuperLeague… I think that it all but GUARANTEES it. 5-10 years down the road, if the G-50 don’t get their way at every turn, then we’re looking at a European Premiership and European Championship… or hell, maybe they won’t even stand for that much promotion/relegation. We’ll go from 4 or 5 competitive top leagues worth watching to one, with everyone else on the outside looking in.
…and maybe then MLS will be on par with the rest of the world?
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