Wednesday, June 05, 2019

Macron denounces UEFA's controversial plans for Champions League

Kudos to French President Emmanuel Macron for "interfering" in the proposed changes to the UEFA Champions League.
The Champions League is a high-profile competition aimed at establishing the best league team in Europe. The top teams from the top leagues in Europe battle it out each year for the accolade of being labelled the best team in Europe. However, UEFA's highly controversial new proposal is to lock in 24 of the 32 teams at the group stage, by granting "elite" teams an automatic entry. The Champions Cup would therefore become a kind of exclusive rich boy's club, and it would be increasingly difficult for smaller teams from smaller national leagues to gain entry to the limelight (not to mention the millions of Euros in broadcasting rights that come with it). The big rich leagues in places like Spain and Italy are strongly in favour of the changes; most smaller leagues are strongly against it.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin denounced Macron's opposition to the changes as "clear interference of politics in sports". However, his own proposed changes amount to clear interference of economics in sports. Macron has been outspoken before about the excessive influence of money in sports. So, who is the good guy here?

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