8 Jul 2008Parry says English clubs will benefit from ECA board

Football Leagues/ Association and Governance | Football Referees, Players, Managers and Media

Rick Parry claims that the new European Club Association (ECA) board will benefit English football, particularly after his inclusion alongside Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon.

The Liverpool chief executive has been elected to the 15-man group that will decide how the European game is run over the next two years.

He said it was "vitally important" that there was an English presence on the board so that the country had a say in any negotiations.

The new body has replaced the controversial G14 and Parry said that it holds a "greater credibility".

"Now we have clubs with widely diverging interests," he explained.

Meanwhile, the board's early plans could see the Uefa Cup re-branded into the Europa Cup in an attempt to raise its profile.

The move would happen for the start of the 2009-10 season and Bayern Munich chief Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said: "I believe we have to change the branding in order to increase the prize money and make the competition more interesting for the participating clubs."

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