G-14

The G-14 group of European football clubs (G-14) was an amalgamation of various European football clubs . It was founded on October 14, 1998 with the aim of representing the interests of the members vis-à-vis UEFA and FIFA , and initially comprised 14 members, from where the name was derived. The G-14 had 18 members since 2002 and saw itself as a preliminary stage to an employer organization in football. On January 15, 2008, the resolution of the G-14 was resolved. It was replaced by the European Club Association founded on January 21, 2008 .

aims

The primary goal of the G-14 was to be a common linguistic body of major European clubs vis-à-vis the economy, but especially the various football associations in international club football, because, in the opinion of the members, important decisions for the clubs were made without their participation. This should be prevented by the G-14. In particular, the group represented a representation of the economic interests of the clubs. In fact, the G-14 could be assigned this role, but it was not the official representation of the clubs.

In the spring of 2006, the G-14 spoke out in favor of a closed Champions League, i. H. there would no longer be any qualification via the national championships, but the same teams would always compete. This proposal was rejected by UEFA, FIFA and the other clubs.

Members

Members of the G14 and their representatives at the time of dissolution

society	accession	be right	Representative, office in the association
AC Milan	2000	19th	Adriano Galliani , Vice President
real Madrid	2000	18th	Ramón Calderón , President
Liverpool FC	2000	16	Rick Parry , chairman of the board
Ajax Amsterdam	2000	13	John Jaakke , President
FC Bayern Munich	2000	13	Uli Hoeneß , deputy chairman of the board
FC Barcelona	2000	11	Joan Laporta i Estruch, President
Juventus Turin	2000	11	Jean-Claude Blanc , sports director
Inter Milan	2000	10	Massimo Moratti , President
FC Porto	2000	8th	Diogo de Paiva Brandao , General Manager
Manchester United	2000	8th	David Gill , chairman of the board
Borussia Dortmund	2000	6th	Hans-Joachim Watzke , General Manager
PSV Eindhoven	2000	6th	Rob Westerhof , President
Valencia CF	2002	5	Juan Bautista Soler , President
Olympique Marseille	2000	5	Pape Diouf , President
Arsenal FC	2002	3	David Dein , vice chairman
Bayer 04 Leverkusen	2002	2	Wolfgang Holzhäuser , General Manager
Paris Saint-Germain	2000	2	Alain Cayzac , President
Olympique Lyon	2002	1	Jean-Michel Aulas , President
	total	157

The association was initially founded by 14 clubs. The founding was preceded by informal meetings of eight clubs with at least five European titles each (AC Milan, Ajax Amsterdam, Bayern Munich, FC Barcelona, ​​FC Liverpool, Inter Milan, Juventus Turin and Real Madrid) since the early 1990s. From 1996 six other clubs took part in these meetings (Borussia Dortmund, FC Porto, Manchester United, Olympique Marseille, Paris Saint-Germain and PSV Eindhoven). In 2000 the G-14 was officially founded.

Since the 14 founding members included three Italian, but only two each Spanish, English, French and German, another four clubs (Bayer Leverkusen, Arsenal FC, Valencia FC and Olympique Lyon) were added in August 2002, increasing the total number Members is now 18.

It is true that the eight clubs that originally worked together placed great value on a large number of successes in the history of the European Cup. However, the G-14 turned away from this basic principle when selecting the other six founding members, and especially when it was expanded in 2002; For example, Bayer Leverkusen, Olympique Marseille and Paris Saint-Germain are members of the association that have only won European Cups once, while G-14 member Olympique Lyon has never won a European title. On the other hand, clubs that were able to celebrate great European successes (such as Benfica Lisbon or Nottingham Forest ) were not admitted to the G-14. There were also no Eastern European clubs in the group.

In 2007 the G-14 was to be expanded from 18 to 40 teams. From the 22 strongest countries (according to the UEFA five-year ranking), the club that was best placed in the last five years should be included.

Existing members could be excluded if a club was relegated from the top division of their country and not immediately promoted again, did not take part in European competitions three times in a row, or damaged the reputation of the G-14. A 75 percent majority was required to expel a member. For example, Borussia Dortmund could have been excluded after the 2005/06 season, as the club last participated in the UEFA Cup in 2002 . An exclusion of Juventus Turin as a result of its role in the football scandal in Italy in 2005/06 would also have been possible. However, the right of exclusion was never used.

Structure and voting rights

Voices by country:

	country	be right	proportion of
1.	Italy	40	25.48%
2.	Spain	34	21.66%
3.	England	27	17.20%
4th	Germany	21st	13.38%
5.	Netherlands	19th	12.10%
6th	France	8th	5.10%
	Portugal	8th	5.10%
	total	157	100.0%

The G-14 had an office in Brussels. The Swiss Thomas Kurth has been the managing director since 2000 .

The highest decision-making body of the G-14 was the quarterly plenary meeting, to which each member association sent a delegate. Most of them were high-ranking people in the sports management of the clubs. The plenary meeting appointed the group's governing body. Unanimous resolutions of the general assembly were required for important decisions.

The voting rights of the members are calculated on the basis of the European Cup titles won; two votes for each victory in the Champions League (or previously in the European Champions Cup), one vote for each victory in the UEFA Cup and the European Cup Winners' Cup . In addition, there were three basic votes each for founding members and one basic vote for members who joined later.

With the help of a special regulation, the influence of individual clubs should be limited when the G-14 was founded; each founding member initially received a maximum of 16 votes, even if, due to their past successes, they should have had more voting rights. However, this rule only applied to successes prior to the founding of the G-14 - titles won after 2000 could also lead to an increase in voting rights beyond 16. This regulation can be interpreted as “Lex Real”, as Real Madrid was the only affected club; By 2000 Madrid had won eight Champions League titles (16 points) and two UEFA Cup titles (two points). Together with the three basic voting rights, the association would have received 21 voting rights. Most recently, Real Madrid had 18 votes - 16 (instead of 21) votes until the G-14 was founded and two votes for the 2002 Champions League victory .

financing

The financing of the G-14 was borne by the members, i.e. the associations, themselves, with 50% of the budget shares being borne equally, but 50% based on the voting weight of the associations within the G-14.

resolution

As a result of an agreement between FIFA and UEFA with the clubs to pay compensation to the clubs for providing national players, etc., the top clubs particularly affected undertook to withdraw several lawsuits and dissolve their G-14 interest group.

criticism

Countries with G14 members (red) and UEFA members (green)

The G-14 faced considerable criticism from the associations, but also from other clubs.

On the one hand, the representation of the associations was in no way democratic and could therefore not claim to speak for the breadth of the associations, especially since their members were only recruited from seven countries. As mentioned, their meeting was not based on objective sporting or sport-historical guidelines. Since they did not take into account any Eastern European clubs, they could not be regarded as a representative of all European professional football clubs.

The democratic structure of the G-14 was also questionable; The basic idea of ​​making voting rights dependent on past successes was a legitimate and transparent weighting factor. However, if all 15 remaining German Bundesliga clubs had joined the association, they would only have 23 votes (15 basic votes, four votes for UEFA Cup wins ( twice Borussia Mönchengladbach , once each FC Schalke 04 and Eintracht Frankfurt ), two votes for the victory in the Cup winners' Cup ( Werder Bremen and Hamburger SV ), as well as two more votes for HSV due to its victory in the European Cup of National Champions 1983). This would have given the 15 clubs only two votes more than the three existing German G-14 clubs. This challenged the democratic structure of the organization. This point of criticism was reinforced by the democratic and athletic but questionable three basic votes for founding members, which are to be regarded as "elders' rights".

For this reason, neither FIFA nor UEFA accepted her as a negotiating partner.

It was also criticized that the financial strength of the members did not result exclusively from sporting successes and their implementation in corresponding sponsorship contracts, but was also achieved through financiers acting as patrons . Thus, a pioneering role in the design of competitions and money allocation keys could not be regarded as justified.

On the contrary, the G-14 was accused of not acting in the interests of sport, but merely acting in accordance with its own economic interests. This became clear in the “Vision Europe” strategy paper that was made public.

“Football has become a business. In order to guarantee further economic upswing, the product of international football must be further developed and brought closer to modern consumers, taking into account the fact that it is primarily the clubs that deliver the product. "

- "Vision Europe" strategy paper

This view of things was reflected in the proposals for the design of the Champions League in particular:

A reintroduction of the intermediate round was requested. This had previously been abolished due to a lack of attractiveness and acceptance among viewers. However, it would promise more games (and thus income from bonuses and television money) and would make it more difficult for outsiders to achieve surprise wins against financially far superior teams in home and away matches. Martin Samuel, sports columnist for the London Times, put it this way

"Given every advantage imaginable, Goliath still wants David to fight with an arm tied."

- Martin Samuel

With reference to past merits, the leadership position of the G-14 members should also be morally confirmed. This also reflected the qualification process for the Champions League, in which numerous national champions are not automatically qualified at all, but clubs from other leagues can qualify up to 4th place.

Web links

• Article on the G-14 strategy in Spiegel from April 5, 2006

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kicker Magazin, January 1999 issue of January 21, 1999
2. ↑ "We should belong."
3. ↑ Article on the agreement between UEFA and the clubs that provide national players ( Memento of May 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ FAZ from April 6, 2006, p. 29