New Champions League format could guarantee three qualified French clubs

Discussions exist at UEFA to allow France, the fifth European nation, to obtain a guaranteed third place from 2024 in the next format of the Champions League, currently under discussion, Lyon president Jean-Michel said on Wednesday. Aulas.A proposal is on the table to offer “France to have a certain number of additional places,” said the manager during the presentation of the half-yearly results of OL Groupe, the holding company which oversees the Lyon club.“This is the object of the new UEFA proposal, 3 + 1 for the fifth nation” to the UEFA coefficient, he added, while this position, currently occupied by France, does not have for the only two places guaranteed for the group stage, plus another leading up to qualifying.Spain, England, Italy and Germany, which occupy the first four places, qualify for their part the first four of their respective championships for the Champions League.”We have participated a lot with Nasser (Al-Khelaïfi, president of PSG) in meetings with UEFA to obtain an intermediate situation, between the one proposed and the completely external private one,” he explained.The future of the queen competition is threatened by the risk of secession of the big European clubs, to form their own private championship, called “Superleague”, modeled on the model of the North American sports leagues.At the same time, UEFA has therefore accelerated work on the new formula for the Champions League from 2024. Among the changes recorded from corroborating sources, the number of participants must go from 32 to 36.National 18-club championships?This would therefore guarantee France, currently fifth in the UEFA coefficient (55,248 pts) ahead of Portugal (47,349 pts), to benefit from at least one additional representative, according to Mr. Aulas.”This will make it possible in the future to correct a certain number of anomalies between France and the other major football nations,” explained Jean-Michel Aulas.The leader also spoke of the opposition of Lyon supporters to the project of “Superligue” which would include among its promoters Real, Barça or Manchester United.”Our supporters, whom we interviewed, are fundamentally against a private European league. We must also listen to the cultural and social demands of the supporters because this is the meaning of the history of popular clubs like Lyon. I believe that in France rather they are against a European private league, ”he said.Ligue 1, too, is thinking about its future. The new president of the League (LFP) Vincent Labrune notably mentioned a possible reduction from 20 to 18 in the number of clubs involved, a proposal which has the support of UEFA, according to Jean-Michel Aulas.“UEFA will push in the direction of 18 clubs per national league to avoid players playing too many matches. The new competitions created by UEFA mobilize international players even more,” he explained.”The championships must evolve in the future, this supposes a general assembly (of the LFP, Editor’s note). It would therefore be for the 2022-2023 season. I think we must go to 18. It is the responsibility of democracy and all the clubs, which will also have to take into account the drop in income from TV rights, ”concluded Jean-Michel Aulas.