The Europa League winners will get a place in the following season’s Champions League from the 2015-16 season, a UEFA source has told Reuters.

The change will boost the prestige of UEFA’s secondary competition which has become largely over-shadowed by the Champions League in terms of prize money, credibility and media coverage over the last decade.
The decision, approved at this week’s executive committee meeting in London, will be announced at UEFA’s annual Congress on Friday.
The decision followed months of discussions between Europe’s top clubs in the European Club Association and UEFA’s top officials including president Michel Platini.
Despite the presence of many of Europe’s leading clubs who have missed out on the Champions League, the Europa League retains an aura of being a consolation prize for the also-rans.
Although a central marketing concept was added to the competition when it was rebranded in 2009, matches are played on Thursdays and are often shown on non-peak viewing channels.
They also generate a tiny percentage of income the Champions League can bring.
UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino refused to comment on the planned change when he gave a news conference on Thursday, but said an announcement would be made at Friday’s Congress.
“Discussions have taken place about the Europa League and some changes are needed for that competition,” he said.
The Europa League, which succeeded the UEFA Cup in 2009-10 but retains the same trophy, features many of Europe’s leading clubs who have missed out on a Champions League place.
There is already a connection between the two competitions as the eight clubs who finish third in their Champions League groups transfer into the Europa League’s knockout rounds.
This season they included last year’s Champions League winners Chelsea.
Despite the initial reticence of some of Chelsea’s players about competing in it, the Premier League won the competition last week by beating Benfica 2-1 in a highly competitive final in Amsterdam.

According to Yahoo

Paris Saint-Germain have informed Wayne Rooney’s representatives that they would be willing to match his current wages as they seek to convince the unsettled England striker to leave Manchester United for Parc des Princes.

Rooney’s future at Old Trafford has been in serious doubt since Sir Alex Ferguson, speaking immediately after his final home game in charge, suggested the forward had asked for a transfer after nine years with United. The incoming manager, David Moyes, is understood to want to retain the 27-year-old’s services but the player may now consider his relationship with the club and the supporters to be fractured beyond repair.

PSG, who are braced to lose their title-winning manager, Carlo Ancelotti, to Real Madrid and will consider Rafael Benítez as a replacement, have sensed an opportunity to secure the England international and hope to pair him up front with Sweden’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic next season.

The French champions, who are backed by the money-flushed Qatar Investment Authority, made their interest in securing the player known last week and have indicated they would be prepared to match his salary, which amounts to about £300,000 a week.

Rooney, whose wife Coleen gave birth to the couple’s second boy, Klay Anthony, on Tuesday, is reluctant to move abroad, given his young family, and would need to be convinced of the overall quality of Ligue 1. But a move to Paris remains a possibility given the lack of other options on the table.

PSG have prioritised the Englishman over Napoli’s Edinson Cavani, who is a long-standing target for Manchester City, and believe he can still be persuaded to leave for France. Arsenal have also been mooted as a potential destination within the Premier League, though it seems unlikely they would be prepared to stretch to the player’s financial demands. Neither City nor Chelsea are inclined, at present, to revive interest in the striker.

Rooney had met Ferguson last month to discuss his prospects at United after the player was dismayed at falling behind Robin van Persie in the pecking order and his inability to earn regular selection in his preferred forward position. He felt the writing was on the wall from the moment he was dropped for the second leg of United’s Champions League knockout tie with Real Madrid in March and expressed his concerns in the discussions.

He apparently denies making a formal transfer request but the manager’s comments, and the subsequent fallout, have left him concerned as to whether there is any way back at United, even under new management, given the damage inflicted by the suggestions he was keen to leave.

United would still need to be convinced about selling Rooney, who has two years remaining on his contract – the usual point for renewing terms – and Moyes’s input could yet prove key to determining the player’s future. If the player cannot be convinced he can be rehabilitated at the club, the best course for him and the club could yet be for his sale to be sanctioned.

United and Rooney’s representatives could not be reached for comment.

According to guardian

Borussia Dortmund’s star player, Mario Goetze, is out of the Champions League final. There’s no way to spin this as a good thing.

The fans may have turned against him in light of his summer move to Saturday’s opponents Bayern Munich, but he remains a key player for Dortmund.

Or rather, remained, because his thigh injury means he has played his final game for the club.

It’s a big blow for a team that need all their big guns firing against a side that finished 25 points ahead of them in the Bundesliga table.

But ruling Goetze out three days before the final is the smartest move Juergen Klopp could make.

At a stroke, he extinguishes the media firestorm of ‘Will he, won’t he?’ stories. He removes uncertainty. He gives himself a chance to settle on a new starting lineup, and his players a chance to focus on a Goetze-free future.

What’s more, he removes the temptation to throw out a half-fit Goetze in a desperate attempt to coax one last moment of genius from his main man.

The deployment of ailing star players rarely ends well – in fact the trail of wreckage stretches all the way back to the 1998 World Cup final.

There, coach Mario Zagallo omitted Ronaldo from the Brazil team after the striker suffered a seizure.

Mysteriously, Ronaldo was reinstated and proceeded to perform like an impostor as a disturbed and disjointed Brazil fell to a 3-0 defeat against France.

England have had plenty of experience in this department. David Beckham taught us all about the metatarsal in 2002, and went to the World Cup while patently below his best. Fatefully, the England captain jumped out of a tackle that led to a Brazil goal, and England departed in the quarter-finals.

The same body part failed Wayne Rooney prior to the 2006 tournament – again he made the trip in body but not performance as he struggled for fitness in Germany.

And Gareth Barry completed the trilogy by playing the 2010 World Cup despite a hobbling ankle injury – a decision whose folly was neatly illustrated by the sight of Germany’s Mesut Ozil motoring past him.

This season’s Champions League has seen two prominent examples – Efe Ambrose played Celtic’s last 16 first leg against Juventus despite arriving in Glasgow from the African Cup of Nations on the morning of the match.

It showed, and Ambrose’s blundering display propelled Juve to a fortunate 3-0 win.

Perhaps the best case came in the semi-finals, when Barcelona were boosted by the news Lionel Messi would start the first leg against Bayern.

But the world’s greatest player looked more like a pub clogger as the Germans romped to a 4-0 win. Mind you, Messi didn’t play in the second leg and Barcelona lost 3-0 at home.

Goetze’s absence on Saturday might hurt – but not as much as the sight of Dortmund’s talisman limping his way to defeat at Wembley. Klopp has made the best of a bad situation.

According to Yahoo

Borussia Dortmund’s attacking midfielder Mario Gotze faces a race against time to be fit to face his future club Bayern Munich in the final of the Champions League on Saturday.

Gotze, who has scored 19 goals this season – more than his last two campaigns combined – tore his hamstring during the second leg of the semi-final against Real Madrid and is still rated doubtful for Saturday’s showpiece.

He started light training just over a week ago and appeared to take a step up on Tuesday when he followed an individual training session in the morning by joining his team-mates in the afternoon.

But Bild reported in the evening that Gotze had been forced to pull out of that second session when he felt the problem again.

General manager Michael Zorc was quoted by the newspaper as saying: “Mario has felt something again in his hamstring. That is why he stopped. We don’t know how bad it is and whether he is still suffering from it.”

It leaves in question Gotze’s chances of playing against the club he will be joining in July after a 37million euros (£31.5million) transfer was agreed upon last month.

And Gotze is not Klopp’s only concern with Mats Hummels, a man who switched between the two Bundesliga giants in the opposite direction in 2008, labouring with an ankle injury.

His chances of a recovery from an injury he picked up only on Saturday are significantly greater, though.

“Nothing is torn so it is not as bad as first feared,” said Hummels to Sport Bild magazine.

“I’m confident I’ll be ready for the final.”

Even without Gotze, Bayern Munich legend Lothar Matthaus believes Dortmund have a good chance of triumphing at Wembley and denying his former club a historic treble this season.

Bayern won the Bundesliga in record-breaking style and face Stuttgart in the final of the DFB-Pokal on 1 June.

“The big question is whether he can play, but then the question is how fit he is,” said Matthaus to Sky television.

“He has not played for the past three and a half weeks. I would say Mario cannot be 100 per cent fit.

“If anything, then maybe he could take his place on the bench next to Jurgen Klopp because Dortmund are not reliant on Gotze.

“It would also be his last game for Borussia against his future club so it would not be easy for Mario Gotze and it would not be easy for Borussia Dortmund, and it would not be easy for Jurgen Klopp either.”

According to Teamtalk

The star feels the Brazilian would add a different dimension to Barcelona’s play and believes Pep Guardiola will be a huge hit with Bayern Munich.

Lionel Messi believes Neymar would make a “wonderful addition” to the Barcelona squad should he opt to move to Camp Nou.

Speculation has intensified in recent weeks over where the Santos star will be plying his trade next season, with Barcelona currently attempting to negotiate a deal despite the player’s insistence he will remain in Brazil until 2014.

However, should such a move materialise, Messi feels the starlet would add a different dimension to Barca’s attacking threat.

“I do not know if he will end up at the club or not. However, it is true that he is a player who would bring a very different dimension to the team,” he told Qatar Alkass. “Of course he would be a wonderful addition.”

The Argentina international then looked ahead to next year’s World Cup in Brazil and insists he wants to taste glory at the tournament irrespective of what it could mean for his reputation in the history of the game.

“All I care about is winning the World Cup,” he said. “I won’t be thinking about whether it will mean I am the best player ever or not.”

The 25-year-old also praised former coaches Frank Rijkaard and Bayern Munich-bound Pep Guardiola, a man who Messi believes will be a huge hit and Bayern and wherever he chooses to go in future.

“He [Rijkaard] was the one who believed in me when I was 17,” the Argentina skipper added. “It was one of the most important times of my life working under him, and Pep told me I was the best player he has ever coached.

“He will succeed at Bayern. He will succeed anywhere he goes because his understanding and reading of the game is like nobody else’s.”

According to Goal