FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Monday the creation of the Europa League to replace the UEFA Cup opens the way for a closed European-wide competition, which he firmly opposes. “Now you have two European leagues,” Blatter said, referring to the Europa League and the Champions League. “It is to open the door finally then to what one day will be, I suppose, closed leagues, and this would be detrimental to football.” Blatter said the idea harked back to the days of the disbanded G14 of major European clubs he always suspected of trying to set up a super league of the top clubs at the cost of the many national leagues in Europe. “There was once the G14 and at that time the objective was a European league. This European league is still somewhere in the heads of big clubs, definitely,” Blatter said after meeting European parliamentarians. Last week, UEFA announced the creation of the Europa League from next season, which will look like a lower-tier version of the Champions League, with teams playing each other on a home and away basis in group stages. Under the current format in the UEFA Cup, clubs only play each other once in the group phase. The UEFA Cup has struggled in the shadow of the lucrative Champions League, which gives teams global exposure and huge television revenues. Blatter wants stricter rules Sepp Blatter wants stricter rules on foreign ownership of European clubs which has left soccer exposed amid the economic downturn, the FIFA president said on Monday. “There must be better control of football's finances especially in the difficult financial climate we are facing,” Blatter said. “Something has to be done about these billionaire owners so I urge UEFA to work with the European Union (EU) to tighten up the rules ... otherwise there will be big financial difficulties in the future.” The surge of foreign investment by wealthy businessmen in clubs, notably in England, was one of the issues the head of world soccer's governing body addressed with EU lawmakers in Brussels. “It seems these days you can buy a club as easily as you buy a football jersey,” Blatter said. “There is something wrong here and that's why I ask the EU to act. Some of these owners prefer horse racing, others like to buy a Formula One team, now buying a football club is the big attraction.”
