There are increasing signs that UEFA is ready to agree to substantial changes to the Champions League to head off the threat of a breakaway European Super League.
The next UEFA executive committee meeting on October 6th and 7th will reveal the European governing body's own plans for a Super League designed to meet the financial demands of the big clubs. And yesterday, as Real Madrid became the latest club to admit to being involved in breakaway talks, their president Lorenzo Sanz agreed that UEFA was beginning to take heed. "The Super League is inevitable," he said, "in two or three years maximum, and UEFA are going to be sensible about the change."
The Premier League, too, now believes that UEFA recognises the need for an overhaul to the European club competition structure, although it will only embrace that change if it is a product of consultation between the clubs and UEFA, bringing to an end the old system of government by UEFA diktat.
The admission by UEFA spokesman Fritz Ahlstrom that it has already drawn up plans for its own Super League and that "they could be made public at the executive committee meeting in Lisbon in October" is a far cry from UEFA's initial response to stories about a breakaway when it threatened clubs with expulsion if they joined up.
In Italy yesterday, it was reported that a European super league would kick off in 2000 with 32 clubs and a jackpot prize of £57.3 million for the winner.
The Turin newspaper Tuttosport said the teams would play in two groups of 16, with the top four sides from each group qualifying for quarter-finals. The competition would then progress on a knockout basis.
Italy's top sides declined to comment.
Tuttosport, in an unsourced article, said teams would reap a minimum of £22.7 million for their participation in the rebel league - more than Real Madrid earned for winning the UEFA-organised European Cup last season.
It said half of the 32 teams would be permanent members of the new league while the others would be invited in on a seasonal basis.
It named the 16 permanent clubs as: Inter Milan, Juventus, AC Milan (Italy); Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool (England); Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund (Germany); Paris St Germain and Olympique Marseille (France); Real Madrid and Barcelona (Spain); Ajax Amsterdam (Netherlands); Benfica (Portugal); Panathinaikos (Greece); Anderlecht (Belgium).
UEFA's test will come on October 25th in Geneva, at the meeting of the UEFA professional clubs committee. The clubs will demand: a drastic change in the European club competition, with more meaningful games, more prizemoney for the main participants, plus a big say in the way television sponsorship deals are done and UEFA decisions affecting clubs are made.
If the governing body agrees, it should prevent a breakaway. But it will also signal a fundamental shift in the balance of European power from UEFA to the clubs.
Roy Keane is ready to step up his return to fitness by playing for Manchester United in the Charity Shield against Arsenal on Sunday.
Keane is ready for his first serious competitive game since last September after appearing in all three of the Scandinavian tour games over the last week.
New signing Jaap Stam also looks a certain starter and Alex Ferguson has to decide who to play alongside the Dutchman in defence.
He will also make his mind up whether or not to use David Beckham who is still having treatment on the ankle injury he picked up in Norway last Monday. With a European qualifying game coming up next Wednesday, three days after the Wembley clash with Arsenal, the United boss may rest the England midfielder or use him on the bench as he did in last year's Charity Shield.
Ferguson has virtually the whole of his first team squad to select from with the exception of new signing Jesper Blomqvist who is close to full fitness but is another who may not be involved from the start.
