Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Bayern’s “Foreign Minister” when it comes to dealing with events abroad, has helped achieve a major step forward at the highest levels of the game for FCB and other leading European clubs.
After lengthy discussions in private, the game’s governing bodies and the clubs announced a breakthrough in Zurich on Monday, as a result of which the G14 alliance of leading clubs and the European club forum will disband. “Memorable decisions have been taken in Zurich. We’re all set for a harmonious future,” the Bayern chairman declared after the summit in Switzerland, where FIFA, UEFA and representatives of the clubs signed a memorandum of intent regarding the future of the game.
The clubs will be granted significant concessions for winding up the G14. UEFA will pay the clubs some €100 million for releasing their players for the European championships in Switzerland and Austria this year, and in Poland and Ukraine in 2012, a sum of approximately €4,000 per player, per day. For the World Cups in South Africa (2010) and Brazil (2014), FIFA will provide compensation to the clubs of US$ 110 million. Approximately half the Bayern squad tend to be current representatives of their countries.
New match schedule
“It’s a good solution. For years now, we’ve been asking for a fair share of revenues generated by major events in return for releasing the players we pay. That’s now been fulfilled, and it’s a step in the right direction,” Rummenigge commented.
Meeting another of the clubs’ demands, the international match schedule will also be amended. Instead of playing on Saturday and Wednesday in weeks where two international fixtures are scheduled, the second match will now take place on Tuesday, another concession Rummenigge has strongly supported in the past. “It gives international players an extra day to recover, which is especially important for South Americans based in Europe,” the former world-class striker explained.
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