UEFA, Governance, and the Control of Club Competition in ...

would not take shape for another four years, Fynn claims that it was these proposals that ‘set theball rolling’ (quoted in King, 2003: 141). In 1990, representations were made by Rangers FC,proposing the introduction of a league stage into the format of the European Cup. This wasultimately achieved in the 1991-92 tournament with the replacement of the quarter-finals and semifinalswith two groups of four, the winners of which went directly to the final. The introduction ofthe ‘league’ stage in 1991-92, and the subsequent renaming and re-branding of the competition in1992-93 marked a pivotal turning point in European competition.Over the course of the next decade the competition would undergo a number oftransformations. In 1993-94, the group stages would lead to the semi-final rather than the final, andthe following season, 1994-95, four groups replaced the first and second rounds. In 1997-98, thegroup stage included six groups with the winners and certain runners up entering the quarter-finalstage. Also, for the first time in the history of the competition, teams other than the nationalchampions from Europe’s top ranked leagues were also able to enter. The growth and developmentof the competition has initiated a transformation in the wider European game, arguably underminingthe traditional, national competitive structures, ushering in an era of heightened economic andsporting interest in the European spectacle. Pressure applied by the clubs certainly played animportant role in the transformation of the tournament, but other forces were also at work. Guidedby the commercial transformations evident in European football, the marketing organisation,Television Event and Media Marketing (TEAM) was formed by Klaus Hempel and Jurgen Lenztwo former executives of ISL who had worked under Horst Daßler. The growing demands of theclubs the late 1980s and early 1990s played into the hands of ‘TEAM’s market opportunism’(Sugden and Tomlinson, 1998: 77) who understood completely the rewards that could be generatedby the astute exploitation of the golden triangle of football, sponsorship, and television. UEFA itselfalso understood the commercial potential of expanding Europe’s flagship competition:Competitions will always be adjusted. The senior most important fact in the development offootball as a world sport and a successful European enterprise is the fact that we have hadleaders able to adjust according to development of the environment. The development of theChampions League was, in my opinion, not so much driven by wishes from the bigger clubs,as the needs of the television companies … Hempel and Lenz were early in this process andthey created with Johansson and Aigner the concept for the Champions League, based on theneeds of the television which means that the major markets had to be better represented, soyou couldn’t stick to the knockout competition and you have to agree to a certain number ofmatches otherwise the programming doesn’t fit … these ideas were before the demands camefrom the clubs (Lars Christer Olsson, UEFA chief executive, personal interview, 16 thNovember 2004).Whilst Olsson may underestimate the role of the clubs in the process, TEAM unquestionably playeda seminal role in the development of the tournament. The relationship between the governing bodiesand event management companies has been the subject of some analysis. Sugden for example, hasreferred such companies as the ‘cement of network football: the go-betweens who line up thecorporate and media partners and stage-manage the spectacle’ (Sugden, 2002: 67). ISL was highlyinfluential in the commercial development of FIFA, and as such played a pivotal role inconsolidating the political authority of its two most recent presidents Joao Havelange and SeppBlatter (see Sugden and Tomlinson, 1998 and 2003). TEAM has also been considered to have had asimilarly influential role in European football: ‘Watching FIFA and UEFA’s hugely influentialpartners of the Havelange and Johansson eras – ISL, TEAM, or other equivalent agencies ofpersonnel – police the commercial and company icons of the fully commodified modern footballstadium, checking every detail of their constructed world like bodyguards protecting an Americanpresident, is to catch a glimpse of who controls international football’s golden triangle in anexpansionist phase of the people’s game’ (Sugden and Tomlinson, 1998: 99). There is little doubtthat TEAM was instrumental in the expansionist phase, educating UEFA and driving change in31