Aston Villa chief Christian Purslow slams Uefa proposals
Chief executive Christian Purslow has warned a planned expansion of the Champions League could prevent clubs like Villa from ‘living the dream’.
Purslow described proposals which would allow clubs to qualify for the competition on the basis of historic performance as ‘unfair’.
Uefa has agreed in principle to expansion plans put forward by the European Clubs Association which would see the number of group matches increase from 2024. In addition, an extra four qualifying places would be given to clubs based on their previous record in the competition.
Purslow believes that would unfairly impact on clubs with the ambition of breaking into the European elite.
Speaking yesterday at a conference of the European Leagues, Purslow said: “English and European football has always been about living the dream. Beating big teams, climbing up the ladder, entering European football is what in sporting terms that dream is all about. The ECA principle of stability worries me. I think ‘stability’ is a code word for predictability or reducing sporting uncertainty and for that reason I wholly disapprove of that access method.”
