Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano is standing for election to the board of the European Club Association (ECA).
The 56-year-old is one of nine candidates for seven spots on the ECA's Subdivision 1 board, for clubs from the six highest-ranked national associations in Europe, and the only one from the Premier League.
Should Soriano be elected, it will be another sign of the European champions’ growing influence at the top of continental football, at a time when they are facing 115 charges from the Premier League relating to alleged breaches of financial regulations.
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The eight other challengers for the seven board positions are Bayern Munich chief executive Jan-Christian Dreesen, Lyon CEO John Textor, Real Sociedad president Jokin Aperribay, Feyenoord chief executive Dennis te Kloese, Napoli director Valentina de Laurentiis, Marseille president Pablo Longoria, RB Leipzig’s Oliver Mintzlaff and Alessandro Antonello of Inter Milan.
The elections will take place on Thursday during the ECA's General Assembly in Berlin.
The ECA has agreed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with European football’s governing body UEFA through to 2030, which includes changes to how revenue from the Champions League and UEFA’s other club competitions will be distributed in the 2024-27 cycle.
One of the key changes for Europe's smaller teams is an increase in solidarity funding for non-participating clubs from 4% to 7%.
Given the forecast increase in revenue for the next cycle, UEFA said clubs not competing in Europe are expected to share €440m (£377m) per season, totalling €1.32bn (£1.13bn) across the three-year period.
For the clubs who make it to the league phase, there is also a shift in emphasis in how money is distributed, away from past pedigree and the size of the television market to current performance.
Payments based on participation will increase by 2.5%, with the percentage of money set aside to be paid out based on performance also increasing from 30 to 37.5%.
That combined 10% increase is achieved by making a combined 10% cut to the percentages for historic coefficient and television market pool – dropping from 45% to 35%.
ECA chairman Nasser Al Khelaifi said: "This renewed Memorandum of Understanding between ECA and UEFA until 2030 is fantastic news for all European clubs, and for everyone concerned with the stability and prosperity of European club football."
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin added: "This new MoU builds upon the solid foundation of co-operation between UEFA and the ECA to enhance the open and values-based European football pyramid celebrated by fans worldwide.
"It will bring continuity, stability and healthy growth that will benefit every corner of Europe. I would like to thank the ECA executive board and its chairman Nasser Al-Khelaïfi for their efforts in making this renewed agreement become a reality.
"Our co-operation will strengthen European football, and we look forward to it resulting in the further development and success of the game."
