
By Brian Homewood ZURICH (Reuters) - The recently-announced changes to the Champions League are detrimental to domestic soccer in Europe and will increase the gap between the wealthiest clubs and the rest, Europe's domestic soccer leagues (EPFL) said on Thursday. The EPFL, the umbrella grouping for 24 European domestic leagues, also called upon the next UEFA president to reconsider the changes which made fewer places available in the Champions League group stage to teams from smaller countries. It was the first major criticism of the reforms of the lucrative competition, which were announced in Monaco in August after secretive negotiations between European soccer body UEFA and the clubs.
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