'Club forum an essential step'

UEFA Chief Executive Gerhard Aigner says that the new European Club Forum will play a significant role in UEFA's future activities.

Improving dialogue
Mr Aigner was speaking after the establishment of the forum, which will comprise 102 major European clubs representing UEFA’s 52 member associations, at this week’s meeting of the UEFA Club Panel in Nyon, Switzerland. The forum's objective is to improve dialogue and consultation between UEFA and Europe's clubs for the overall benefit of the European club game.

Eleven-member board
The forum, which will replace the Club Panel, will have an eleven-member board, which will act as the regular liaison body with UEFA and provide a minimum four members to the UEFA Club Competitions Committee.

Wide area
The club forum will meet at least twice a year, and will deal with matters covering a wide area of the European game including, among other things, competition formats, marketing and rights strategies, and developments and partnership opportunities within the field of new communications. The inaugural forum meeting is scheduled to take place in Monaco at the end of August.

Strengthen the relationship
"These are essential steps to strengthen the relationship between UEFA and the clubs of Europe," said Mr Aigner in a statement.

Working together
"We have to work together to improve club football in Europe and it is important to have the means to do this. I'm sure the new Club Forum and its board will play a significant role in UEFA in the years ahead."

Important moment
"This marks an important moment in the way UEFA and clubs can work together within the football family to promote the future well-being of European professional football," added the UEFA CEO.

UEFA rankings
The formation and membership of the forum and its board are based on the UEFA national associations’ ranking list.

Provisional board
Eleven clubs have been named on a provisional basis on the first board: Real Madrid CF (Spain), S.S. Lazio (Italy), Manchester United FC (England), FC Bayern München (Germany) and Olympique Lyonnais (France) would represent 27 clubs from places one to six in the ranking list.

Other provisional board representatives
Galatasaray SK (Turkey), FC Porto (Portugal) and FC Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine) would represent 27 clubs from places 7 to 15, Rangers FC (Scotland) and Grasshopper-Club (Switzerland) would represent 22 clubs from places 16 to 25, and PFC Litex Lovech (Bulgaria) would represent 26 clubs from places 26 to 52.

One year
The composition of the board may be revised in a year's time on the basis of an election carried out within the forum.