Relevent Sports Chair Charlie Stillitano said that closing off European football competitions to elite clubs "could make them far richer," according to Rob Harris of the AP. Stillitano, who has held talks with leading EPL teams about a "shake-up to long-established league structures," met Tuesday in London with Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City and ManU about this year's Int'l Champions Cup. He confirmed Thursday that they also talked about "restructuring the Champions League," an issue high on the European Club Association agenda "amid a power vacuum at UEFA." Stillitano revealed that UEFA has "been keen on working with the ICC, which already attracts some of the world's wealthiest teams to compete in games across the globe for a lucrative but meaningless prize." If the Premier League season ended now, "unfashionable" Leicester City and "outsider" Tottenham "would qualify for the Champions League" alongside Arsenal and Man City. Stillitano: "Maybe that is absolutely spectacular unless you are a Manchester United fan, Liverpool fan ... or a Chelsea fan. I guess they don't have a birthright to be in it every year. But it's the age-old argument: U.S. sports franchises versus what they have in Europe." Stillitano believes Europe's biggest clubs "deserve to make more cash from the Champions League, given their contribution to making it such a financial success" (AP, 3/3). In London, James Ducker reported Leicester City Manager Claudio Ranieri has accused the country’s big clubs of "running scared after heaping scorn on the prospect of a European Super League" that would protect the interests of England’s "established elite." Ranieri warned the EPL's so-called "big five" that they "only had themselves to blame if they missed out on Champions League qualification." He claimed that any attempts to restructure the Champions League "to ensure that they do not miss out were a sign of fear and weakness that undermined the essence of competitive sport." Ranieri: "All the fans want sport to be very clear, for there to be respect for everybody. I understand the bigger teams want to be sure to get money and don’t want to lose one year without Champions League football. But this is sport. You can imagine there is a Super League and then there are other teams who won the league [who are not in it]. It’s not so good. It’s good that there is big competition. You have to deserve [to be in] the Champions League." Stillitano "had appeared to question Leicester’s importance." Stillitano’s remarks had "earlier drawn a furious rebuke" from former Leicester Chair Jon Holmes, the long-time agent of Gary Lineker. In an open letter to Stillitano, Holmes wrote that supporting a club such as Leicester "rather than a brand like Man U" was a "statement of where you come from and what you are, not allegiance to a transferrable action for a particular kind of toothpaste." Lineker endorsed Holmes’s view on Twitter, with the Match of the Day presenter and former England captain describing the letter as an "excellent piece" (LONDON TIMES, 3/5).
