Taking Paris Saint-Germain as an example, the UEFA president has said that having foreign owners at the club is not necessarily a good thing and also shed some light on the future of the Champions League
While talking to the columns of Ouest-http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Qatar-c2986 Investment Authority. In just two seasons, the Ligue 1 outfit has spent almost 200 million
euros on new players in a bid to make the capital club a stronghold in Europe.
And, Michel Platini has his reservations regarding foreign owners taking charge of clubs. The former glory of French football feels that although he cannot do anything about it, clubs will lose their identity when they fall into the hands of rich foreign
investors.
“I cannot afford, in a liberal world, to question the origin of the owners, even if I regret that clubs falling into the hands of foreign capital. Because for me, the identity of a club is its region, its supporters. I am not in favour of globalization,
but legally, I cannot do anything about it.”
In recent times, people have questioned the relevance of the UEFA Europa League as a competitive tournament. As a second tier European competition, Europa League has not really been able to attract crowds nor generate huge amounts of revenues unlike the
Champions League.
However, with so many leagues in the Old Continent, scrapping the competition would not be a wise option so making whole scale changes within Champions League could do the trick. And, the UEFA supremo spoke a bit about the possibility of the UCL becoming
a 64-team tournament after the Europa League is scrapped.
“There is an ongoing debate to determine what form the European competitions will have between 2015 and 2018. We’re discussing it, we will make a decision in 2014. Nothing is decided yet,” said the former France international.
There has been talk of the creation of a competition equal to the Champions League by Europe’s richest clubs. However, Platini is of the view that it won’t really work out as it would be hard for these clubs to manage such a competition outside the framework
of UEFA.
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