GENEVA (AP) Changing the Champions League to a 36-team format featuring games from 2024 could be agreed by UEFA next week, a member of its executive committee said Friday.

Lars-Christer Olsson, who represents Europe’s domestic leagues on the UEFA ruling committee, said it plans to meet on Wednesday if a proposal is ready to be approved.

The preferred option that includes abolishing the traditional group stage could be agreed Tuesday by UEFA’s club competitions committee.

There is consensus between UEFA and leaders of European soccer’s top clubs and leagues to add four entries to the Champions League with the teams playing in a single 36-team standings from the 2024-25 season — a variation of the so-called “Swiss system” used in chess tournaments.

Where clubs and leagues differ is how to award the extra places, how many games each team should play and how to distribute the prize money.

The European Club Association wants two entries reserved for teams who did not qualify on merit but are highly ranked by UEFA based on results in past seasons. Critics say that would bail out storied clubs with tens of millions of dollars in UEFA prize money.

The clubs also want to play 10 different opponents in a format creating 100 extra games in total and four extra midweeks exclusively for the Champions League.

The 30-nation European Leagues group wants three places kept for national champions in its mid-ranked members, and a schedule of eight games for each team. That would create 64 extra Champions League games and save two midweeks for domestic games.

However, the UEFA panel meeting on Tuesday is stacked in the clubs’ favor.

“We have to be honest and say that the clubs have had more influence (at UEFA) than we have had,” Olsson acknowledged.

UEFA has hoped to reach a deal on the post-2024 look of club competitions before its annual congress of 55 member federations on April 20.

Olsson said many of those UEFA members are supporting the leagues’ ideas for fairer distribution of Champions League entries and money.

The Champions League currently shares $2.4 billion among 32 clubs each season.

UEFA officials have predicted a “significant increase” in broadcast and sponsor revenue for the 2024 changes which will create more prize money.

Olsson cautioned “less is more” for the value of Champions League games.

The Swedish official was part of UEFA management 20 years ago when clubs pushed for a second group stage that created more guaranteed games by replacing some knockout rounds.

“It was a total disaster,” said Olsson, who went on to be UEFA’s chief executive from 2003-07. “I hope we are not making the same mistake now.”

Redoune Jiyed, the Moroccan who handled the Nigeria versus South Africa quarter-finals clash at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations has been assigned the same roll in the Benin-Nigeria qualifying duel for Cameroon 2021.

He along with two of his compatriots, Lahsen Azgaou and Mostafa Akarkad who will be the assistant referees has landed in Benin Republic.

Nicknamed the ‘Child of Sous’ a region in the mid-southern Morocco, Redoune Jiyed, 40 is often compared with the late Said Belqola, the Moroccan who was the only African to officiate a World Cup final match.

Belqola, who had officiated in Nigeria in a World Cup encounter against Guinea in 1996 as well as a Shooting Stars Champions League duel with South Africa’s Orlando Pirates, was the referee of the France versus Brazil World Cup final match in 1998.

The fourth official for the Benin-Nigeria match is Burkina Faso’s David Yaméogo Koudougou. The Beninese doctor Sylvestre Parfait Aivodji is responsible for the Covid-19 tests while the security officer is the Ghanaian Julius Ben Emunah.

Reminiscence of the arrival of Nigeria’s first national team in Liverpool 72 years ago, the current crop of players, the Super Eagles have made similar arrival in Cotonou in Benin Republic as they get set for a crunchy Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Porto Novo.

“We have arrived in Porto Novo”, the team’s official twitter handle announced at a little past 3pm Nigerian time. It was the first time in 72 years that a Nigerian national team had travelled by sea for an assignment. They travelled to Cotonou in six boats.

When it first happened 72 years ago, the Nigerian side won by 5-2, the first match they played after disembarking. The game was against Marine Cosby.

Will the Super Eagles recreate this by winning by a three goal margin on Saturday?

The team will on Saturday moved to Porto Novo venue of the match. In Cotonou, they are staying at the Golden Tulip Le Diplomat Hotel.  They also had their mandatory Covid-19 test.

After the match, they will return to Cotonou and leave again by boat for Lagos on Sunday morning.