Werder Bremen’s chairman, Jürgen L. Born paid witness to a historical event during the last week. The decision was made in Nyon to form a European club forum, which will create an independent syndicate of clubs, recognised by both UEFA and FIFA.
Werder Bremen’s chairman, Jürgen L. Born paid witness to a historical event during the last week. The decision was made in Nyon to form a European club forum, which will create an independent syndicate of clubs, recognised by both UEFA and FIFA.
Werder Bremen’s chairman, Jürgen L. Born paid witness to a historical event during the last week. The decision was made in Nyon to form a European club forum, which will create an independent syndicate of clubs, recognised by both UEFA and FIFA. The ECA (European Club Association) will represent the European clubs in place of the now defunct ‘G14’, which represented Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen as German clubs.
Mr. Born, what does this ‘Historical Event’ really mean to the clubs involved?
Basically there has been a wonderful deal struck up between, UEFA, the G14, the European club forum and every other group claiming to have a hand in European football. The founding of the ECA, for clubs involved in European competition, means that the clubs interests can be better presented to UEFA and FIFA.
Will Werder Bremen become an ECA member?
Yes, as from summer 2008. The fact that we are not represented in the initial transition period, until 30.06.2008, is because FC Bayern Munich, VfB Stuttgart, Schalke and Leverkusen were ahead of us in the five-year-valuation from 2006. That was the basis for the original grouping but the June 2008 edition will see us in second place behind Bayern Munich. The plan is for the ECA membership to re re-analysed every three years.
Will Werder miss out o anything important between now and summer?
The ECA will only be represented by a small group until summer, then the final ECA legislation will be put together which will include Europe’s leading clubs.
What exactly was decided last week?
Firstly a declaration of intent was submitted for the founding of the ECA. This agreement was then endorsed by the clubs as well as the president and vice-president of UEFA. It is very important that such a panel is acknowledged and it will be the only committee to hold such a status in Europe.
have Werder signed this declaration too?
We must sign a formula declaring our wish to join this new ECA. We signed and handed this in immediately in order to become a recognised member.
The ‘G14’, containing the top clubs in Europe, was never acknowledged by UEFA. Why the compromise now?
The clubs had to make concessions and the G14 had to agree to dissolve. The clubs also had to agree to drop all charges they held against FIFA and UEFA.
Was it the correct decision to dissolve the ‘G14’? Apparently Werder were interested in becoming members.
I was very surprised at how unresistingly the ‘G14’ was dissolved. The ‘G14’ did show that such an organisation needed to be flexible. There were a number of clubs involved who no longer belong to the elite in European football. The ECA offers a new basis to share ideas and do some long term good for the sport. We can expect to see 103 clubs from 53 participating countries join.
Werder could find themselves profiting early on from the ECA with both FIFA and UEFA having already agreed on certain issues.
That’s correct. There are a lot of positives for the clubs. For example there is the planning of a more practical timing of the Africa Cup of Nations and that future double international match days will be held on Saturday’s and Tuesday’s in order to get the players on duty back to their respective clubs sooner.
In the future there will also be more compensation for clubs allowing players to participate in World and European Championships.
That’s the idea. There will be €43,5 million made available for the EURO 2008 and for the EURO 2012 that figure will rise to €55 million. It will be a little less for the World Cup.
What would a club like Werder see from that money?
During the EURO 2008 in Austria and Switzerland, Werder can expect to receive €4,000 per day per player. That is an acceptable sum for a club like Werder who have a lot of international representatives in our ranks.
