Celtic’s chairman has made the trip to Lisbon to attend a ‘important’ UEFA meeting.
Celtic chairman Peter Lawwell has been busy attending an important UEFA meeting as the Hoops prepare for a new-look Champions League campaign of next.
The Champions League will change next season to feature four extra clubs, made up of two new qualifiers from the play-offs and two extra teams from the two straight new qualifiers European leagues with the greatest performance in the European tournaments in the previous year.
Having dominated domestically, the aim for Brendan Rodgers and his players will now be to push on and strive to compete at a better level in the Champions League after struggling to progress in the competition over recent years. The modifications to the tournament mean Celtic and their European competitors will gain increased revenue thanks to an overall rise of 21% in UEFA television revenue.
To discuss such adjustments and other financial concerns, Celtic chairman Lawwell has met with UEFA chiefs and officials from other teams in Lisbon. Reps from some of Europe’s best including Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund were also in attendance. He remarked, with a message on Lisbon’s importance to Celtic through winning the 1967 European Cup in the city, after the meeting: “ECA is the only club association recognized by FIFA and UEFA and we have a very important role as the heart of European football.
“We have a very large network of contacts and we work on behalf of the clubs. We are getting bigger and bigger, already with 657 members representing the majority of clubs in Europe’s top divisions. We are quite proud of this and we had a very fascinating meeting. The hospitality has been wonderful. Lisbon is very special for Celtic FC as is Sporting CP, since we share the same colours and a good relationship with the Board of Directors.”
Michael Verschueren, chair of the financial working group has said of the meetings: “Our working group is very important, as money is increasingly important in football. Revenues are increasing and everything related to regulation, distribution of money and the financial impact of rules is dealt with in this group of work.
“We work throughout the year with many meetings and negotiations with interested parties, be it FIFA or UEFA. The personnel in this working group are experts and work with finances every day. We think about numerous issues and projects and in these meetings we aggregate everything that is being worked on and decided.”
The changes to the Champions League were voted upon back in 2022 when it was agreed that adjustments were to be implemented one year early. UEFA chief Aleksander Ceferin said of the changes: “UEFA has clearly shown that we are fully committed to respecting the fundamental values of sport and to defending the key principle of open competitions, with qualification based on sporting merit, fully in line with the values and solidarity-based European sports model.
“I am really pleased that it was a unanimous decision of the UEFA Executive Committee, with the European Club Association, European Leagues and national associations all agreeing with the proposal made. Another sign that European football is more united than ever.”
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