Europe’s top football clubs have reached a new cooperation agreement with UEFA to give them a bigger share of European Championship profits and insure salaries for players injured on international duty.
The European Club Association said on Tuesday that the renewed accord runs until May 2018 – expiring days before the World Cup kicks off in Russia – but “unsatisfactory” talks with FIFA were locked in stalemate.
ECA chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge announced the “major breakthrough” with UEFA at a meeting of the 200-club group in Warsaw, Poland.
“The negotiations have not always proved easy, but were always conducted in a fair and respectful manner,” Rummenigge said in a statement, praising UEFA president Michel Platini. “Unfortunately, discussions with the FIFA president have failed to lead to a satisfactory outcome which takes account of the clubs’ demands.”
Rummenigge later said there was time to work on extending the ECA’s deal with FIFA. It expires after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
“We can be relaxed and patient. I am not a pessimist,” the former West Germany great said.
FIFA said it was “surprised” at the European clubs’ negotiating stance.
“FIFA remains, as always, willing to discuss with ECA on these topics, as it does with all other stakeholders in the world football community,” the governing body said in a statement.
The ECA was created in 2008 to give clubs a more democratic voice in talks with UEFA and FIFA after years of hostile relations when elite clubs were represented by the G-14 group which threatened to form a breakaway European league.
However, talks to renew the ECA’s initial working agreements have exposed problems between Rummenigge and FIFA president Sepp Blatter over insurance policies and the number of fixtures on the FIFA-approved international calendar, when clubs are obliged to release their players to national teams.
The ECA has focused more on relations with UEFA and Platini, who is the favourite to succeed Blatter at FIFA in 2015.
European clubs will share a “substantially increased” sum on the 55 million euros ($A69 million) previously agreed from Euro 2012 profits, which is distributed on a daily rate for as long as players are involved in the tournament co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.
“This amount will be substantially increased in time for this year’s Euro with a further increase for the UEFA Euro 2016 in France,” the clubs said. The exact increase will be announced at the UEFA Congress held on March 22 in Istanbul.
Before Euro 2012, UEFA will fund “insurance covering the injury risk of players” who European clubs release to play for any national team.
“This insurance is valid for all players registered with a European club, irrespective of their nationality, and for all matches mentioned in the international calendar, including both official and friendly matches,” the ECA said.
