When the 2022/23 The group stage of the Champions League was organized on August 2532 clubs from 15 different countries entered the raffle. While the composition of the eight groups was not yet discussed, one thing was clear before the draw was set: the 40 UEFA member countries would not be represented in this year’s edition of the most prestigious club football competition in Europe. History shows That the number will further decrease the qualifying internships. Last season, eight countries participated in the round of the last 16. In 2020/21 there were only six. In the 30 years elapsed since the opening season of the Champions League, there has only been one final without at least one team from Spain, England, Italy or Germany. Only in 2004 the finalists FC Porto could already measure that Monaco breaks this domain.
Traditionally, countries were represented through their national champions, turning the predecessors and the original champions league into large European football assemblies. But once the economic success of the competition was resumed, the qualification rules gradually adjusted, and since the 1999/2000 season, more and more places were distributed to the big leagues based on the range of 5 years. For 2016, 22 instead of 16 teams are customary directly to the group stages, and since 2018 only four national champions outside the 10 most successful leagues can even qualify. With the Upcoming competition reformsEven more of the available places will be granted to large leagues.
The Champions League in its current format is, or the course, Nogtome successful from a financial point of view. For the current season, UEFA Income projects Or more than 3 billion euros from the Champions League, and approximately 500 million of its other international club competitions. TO Recent sale Or the US transmission rights for their club competitions between 2024 and 2030 brought 1.5 billion dollars, whose lion’s participation will be distributed among the teams competing in the Champions League. Compared to the Insignia Champions League, the other European competitions are almost financially irrelevant.
In Article 2 or its statutesUEFA proposes “acting as a representative voice for the European Football Family as a whole” (art. 2l) and promises to “guarantee that sports values always prevail over commercial interests” (art. 2g). Former UEFA presidents declared That UEFA “not only thinks about the great clubs“Works Council That “A small country champion will be preferred in a fourth place in a great country “But the reality of European football says otherwise. With only 15 of 55 member associations participating in the Champions and Virtumy League, the same countries that play their end every year, smaller member associations compete mainly in new competitions with creative names such as the Upha Conference League. Is this the representation of the “football family as a whole”? Does the current structure really put sports values before commercial interests? And why does equality of representation import?
The establishment of international competitions in a “de facto European League system ”(Niemann et al. 2022) It is only one of the many results of the football Europeization (Niemann & Brand 2018). From the intersection of globalization and European integration a highly interconnected European football system emerged, where competition, players movement, defense efforts and marketing -in the European scenario. Since football is a known catalyst for several forms of identifications, its turn that Europe could contribute to the development of European identities in football fans (see, for example, for example, for example, King 2000” Weber 2021). However, this identity formation must rely on continuous contact and interaction with Europe that fans experience through internationalized players squads, accessible information about foreign leagues and regular games in continental competitions. When Europe is present in the daily and quiet activity of the football fandom, when contact with Europe is normalized, and when the pinnacle of sports competition is on the European stage, values and guidelines are likely to follow its example. In times of social tensions throughout Europe and ascent antieuropeas trends, a shared cultural experience can contribute to social cohesion in Europe.
Consistently, the continuous redesign of the main competition of Europe towards a more restricted and more exclusive format that favors most of the highly developed economic and economic countries, the countries of central and western Europe leaves the members of the “famous European austa” in the “famous European fan” of “celebrities”, this power alienates many people from which they feel represented and belonging to a more broad community, as they belong to a community. They become the participants of Europe in the past of Europe in the past time of Europe. “We care about football” or its statutes seriously, there is an undeniable need for change.
This publication is based in part on “Goodbye, Europe“, Published by 11Freunde.de on August 25, 2022
Jonas BielResearch Associate at the University of Mainz
Tobias fingerResearch Associate at the University of Mainz
Blog posts represent the author’s opinions and not those of Sports & EU or their members members
