European soccer clubs reunite to talk World Cups, bailouts

By GRAHAM DUNBAR
AP Sports Writer

GENEVA (AP) — European soccer clubs have been offered backing from UEFA to oppose FIFA’s push for biennial World Cups. They are also promised a UEFA-backed “multibillion debt fund” to stabilize their industry after huge revenue losses in the pandemic. About 160 European Club Association members met for the first time during the pandemic and since the Super League project collapsed. Their new leader Nasser al-Khelaifi kept his Qatar-owned club Paris Saint-Germain out of the Super League plan in April and helped to sink it within days. The PSG president says “every single club is feeling the pain” of COVID-19.