Championship of the marginalized .. Launch a new competition for clubs of Europe

The European Union (UEFA) on Sunday approved the creation of a new competition for third-tier clubs, which will follow the current system of the Champions League and the European League starting in 2021.

At a meeting in Dublin, the union's executive committee completed plans to present the new tournament, currently called "European League 2" and will include 32 teams in the group stage, from 2021 to 2024.

At the same time, the European Champions League will be reduced from 48 to 32 teams.

UEFA said the Champions League would remain unchanged, meaning the top four leagues - in Spain, England, Germany and Italy - would maintain their four seats secured by the group.

The organization, representing the European leagues, has asked UEFA to reduce the number of guaranteed seats for the next major league teams and to retract the changes made for the current tournament.

The European Union said the new competition would ensure the participation of at least 34 countries in club competitions compared with the current total of 26 countries.

"The new competition will make our club tournaments more comprehensive than ever before," said FIFA president Alexander Chifrin.

"There will be more matches for the clubs and more associations will be represented as teams," he said.

The competition will consist of eight teams, each with four teams, followed by the knockout stages from the final round. Like the European league, the new tournament will be held on Thursday.

Like the current competitions, there will also be four preliminary rounds held in July and August.

An extra round will be played for the losers before the final round between the second-placed teams and third-placed teams in the European Champions League.

Similarly, second-placed teams will play in the European Champions League against third-place drawers with Champions League groups for a place in the final round of the European Championship.

The teams will qualify for seventh place in the four big leagues on the old continent directly to the final round of the new competition.

The teams participating in the first preliminaries of the new competition will be essentially the second, third and fourth in Europe's smaller leagues.

Teams from the UEFA preliminary round will also be drawn to the new competition.

The new competition will feature 141 matches over 15 tournaments, such as the European League. The winner will have the opportunity to participate in the European League next season.