Uefa told to start European football restructure plan 'from scratch'

Uefa has been told to scrap plans to reform club football from 2024 and start its project "from scratch".

The European Leagues' organisation - which represents 35 leagues on the continent - said reforms "benefit just a few rich and dominant clubs".

Uefa and the European Club Association (ECA) have plans for a European football pyramid with promotion and relegation to the Champions League.

But on Thursday, European Leagues said the proposals "damages the leagues".

The European Leagues' board - which includes the Premier League and English Football League - met in Warsaw to discuss proposals laid out by European football's governing body.

The 13-man board said it "retained the strong opinion that the presented proposal for reforming the European club competitions benefits just a few rich and dominant clubs but damages the leagues and the great majority of clubs playing in the domestic competitions.

"The leagues believe it is imperative for Uefa to start building the changes in the Uefa club competitions project from scratch."

Uefa and ECA proposals would see the top tier of European competition include 32 teams split into four groups if eight. The top 24 teams would keep their places for the next season, ending the tradition that qualifying for European competition is achieved via national leagues.

Only four places would be open to the winners of Europe's 54 national leagues.

Dariusz Mioduski, the vice-chairman of the ECA, has written a letter to league and club leaders explaining the changes are necessary to tackle the domination of Europe's biggest leagues over the other 50 national leagues.