Euro leagues ordered UEFA to dial back its ambitions to add additional Champions League matches and assist teams in qualifying based on their previous performances in the competition, on Friday.

“An increase of more than 50% of games will hurt the vast majority of clubs and benefit very few,” European Leagues chairman Claus Thomsen said after a meeting in Istanbul. “We need to have a lower number of rounds.”

Also read: Will Newcastle press their luck at home to upset Liverpool’s title race?

The splits within European soccer come a year after UEFA joined forces with the leagues to prevent a Super League secession by elite teams that would still benefit from the modifications to the Champions League scheduled for 2024.

The competition will be expanded from 32 to 36 teams, with two spots reserved for teams with a solid five-season European record that do not qualify based on their domestic league rank.

The European Leagues group gathered to formalise its objection to the safety-net berths for the biggest clubs, urging UEFA that all Champions League spots must be based on qualification gained through domestic results from the previous season.

Also read: Tuchel on Chelsea draw against Man United: don’t have what we deserve

Before critical meetings in Vienna next month, UEFA has been encouraged to scale back the enlargement of the group stage, so that it merely rises from six to eight games per team, rather than the ten envisaged from 2024 based on a single standings model.

The proposed places for two teams based on their UEFA “coefficient” points are worth tens of millions of dollars in prize money and would reward an elite team having a poor season and also ensure broadcasters can still show the biggest teams in the Champions League. Those teams would still have to finish in a Europa League qualification spot — or win their domestic cup — to make the jump up to the Champions League rather than finishing lower and leapfrogging higher-place rivals.

Also read: Ralf Rangnick unsure of Cristiano Ronaldo’s future at Manchester United

The European Leagues group, on the other hand, wants the past performance slots removed entirely from the structure to ensure that all spaces are gained by sporting merit the previous season. The exemption is the spot reserved, as it is currently, for the genuine Champions League winners if they do not qualify through the league.

“On the whole European Super League issue we saw football in Europe coming together and agreeing on certain things including that it is sporting merit that takes us from one level to the next and we should not have closed tournaments and that we should not move in that direction,” Thomsen said. “You could argue it is only two places and now no leapfrogging but you are leaving the basic principle and in the end I trust UEFA will move in that direction as well.”

Also read: Cristiano Ronaldo salvages 1-1 draw for Man United vs Chelsea

Thomsen, the Danish league’s top executive, is a member of the UEFA Club Competitions Committee, which will convene on May 10. The committee submits formal proposals for approval by the executive committee of the European governing body, which meets later that day in Vienna, Austria.