UEFA opinion still divided over Reds
Opinion is still “divergent” among UEFA’s executive committee on whether Liverpool should be given the opportunity to defend their Champions League crown, with a decision due on Friday at the earliest.
The 14-man committee will discuss the matter later this week, although Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson will not have a vote on this matter. The European governing body today insisted it is not cut and dried that the Reds will gain admission for next season’s competition.
UEFA director of communications William Gaillard told the Press Association: “There are some divergent opinions. There are some people who see that the rules are the rules. If everyone was in favour then I’m sure they would have taken the decision earlier.
“It is a matter for negotiation still.”
The committee must establish in principle that the competition winners should always qualify automatically and secondly whether a national association is then entitled to enter five teams instead of four.
They must then decide, if they are in favour of changing the rules, whether this can be applied to Liverpool in time for them to compete in the 2005-06 Champions League.
It is understood that any decision to admit them in principle would come first, with the practicalities of how to accommodate them to come later.
Nine Merseyside MPs handed over a dossier containing 3,000 messages of support for Liverpool’s case at the FA’s Soho Square headquarters this morning.
