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Published: Tuesday September 8, 2009 MYT 3:56:00 PM

United, Real win poll for seats on top lobby group

GENEVA (AP): Europe's top football clubs elected officials from the world's two richest teams - Manchester United and Real Madrid _ on Monday to represent them at the head of an influential lobby group.

United chief executive David Gill and Real president Florentino Perez defeated CSKA Moscow president Evgeni Giner in a poll to choose two new members of the European Club Association's 15-man board.

"I'm obviously very pleased to be elected," Gill told The Associated Press. "The ECA has a very important role to play in the relationship with UEFA and other bodies within European and world football."

Perez, who orchestrated Real's euro250 million ($358 million) offseason spending spree, said in a statement he was "very happy to be able to work for the clubs inside the big European football family."

Gill and Perez, whose clubs are valued at a combined $3.22 billion (euro2.25 billion) by Forbes magazine, will take their seats at the center of a debate on how to control excessive spending in football.

The ECA sends delegates to UEFA's strategy council which will propose detailed "financial fair play" rules next year. The European authority wants clubs to break even on football activities by 2012 or face being barred from its lucrative Champions League.

"We are the people who run the clubs, we understand the issues," Gill said. "All parties need to work together to come up with a set of rules and regulations that everyone buys into."

The ECA comprises 144 clubs from Europe's 53 football nations who have been successful in the Champions League or UEFA Cup, now rebranded as the Europa League.

Monday's poll was open to ECA members from Europe's six most successful leagues - England, Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Russia.

More than 100 clubs are expected to attend a six-monthly general assembly Tuesday, which will discuss releasing players for the Olympic Games and how European Union labor and competition laws affect the sport.

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