UEFA not enthused about "Eastern League"

Eastern clubs intend to fight for their alternative

Bucharest (pte030/05.03.2003/12:33) f? ¢ïf a planned alternative to the Champions League have vowed to fight on to get the project off the ground after a lukewarm reception to the idea from UEFA.

Sixteen clubs in eastern and southern Europe have held talks on the creation of a new competition for clubs in the region run on the format of the Champions League to be called the 'Eastern League'. But the initial response from European football's governing body has been less than enthusiastic.

Negotiations had been held in the Romanian capital earlier this week between clubs from nine southern and eastern European states. The proposals were then put forward to UEFA.

UEFA spokesman Michael Lee said: "UEFA is sceptical. Considering the calendar of football competitions is already very tight, this new project might not prove viable. There were some other proposals like this in the past but they were never put in practice. We will look at the proposal, though."

Officials at Dinamo Bucharest, one of the clubs behind the proposal, were quoted in local paper 'Evenimentul Zilei' as saying they had not given up hope for the competition.

Dinamo Bucharest president Nicolae Badea said: "We are hopeful of going on with this. We want the Eastern League to help the teams eliminated from the European cups in the early stages. We want this competition to be an alternative to the Champions League."

The 16 teams which would be involved in the competition are: Steaua, Rapid and Dinamo Bucharest from Romania, Galatasaray Istanbul and Besiktas from Turkey, Greek sides Olympiakos Pireu and PAOK Salonic, Serbian giants Crvena Zvezda and Partizan Belgrade, Croatian team Hajduk Split, Cyrpiot side Apoel Nicosia, Maribor from Slovenia, TSKA Sofia and Levski Sofia from Bulgaria and Ukrainian sides Shakhtor Donestk and Dinamo Kiev.

Many teams in eastern and southern Europe fail to get past the early qualifying rounds of the Champions League and UEFA Cup as they run up against stronger opposition from western European countries. Failure to go past the qualifying stages means clubs miss out on revenues from fixtures against European giants from England, Germany, Spain and Italy.

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