Top European Clubs Plan To Extend G14 - 28/11/2004

Europe's top clubs are planning to expand their exclusive organisation, G14. They have already expanded the membership from fourteen to eighteen to bring in clubs such as last year's European champions, FC Porto and now Celtic and Rangers are the favourites to join. The English clubs currently in membership are Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United. Membership is by invitation only and any one club can blackball a prospective member, emphasising its exclusivity. Interestingly, Chelsea are not members. This probably does not reflect any bias against Russian ownership, but rather the fact that Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon is chairman of the European Club Forum. This is a body set up by Uefa to try and tempt the most powerful clubs back into its fold. Some G14 members, including Real Madrid and AC Milan, also have representatives in that forum. Why should fans care about what a cabal of clubs does in this exclusive talking shop?

Two reasons. First, G14 has often outflanked Uefa in discussions with the European Commission on sports policy. This reflects the unstated but nevertheless real preference of the Commission for dealing with organisations that represent top firms and have real clout. Second, G14 could be seen as the basis for turning the Champions League into a permanently constituted European Super League which would have profound implications for the domestic game. They would not necessarily all be bad, given the increasing division of the Premiership into the top clubs and the rest. On the other hand, fans would certainly not like a competition which followed the American baseball model and had no provision for promotion or relegation.