Caborn fears for the Premiership if clubs do not influence European law

Caborn has met with the 20 clubs to try to win their support for changes to be recommended by a European White Paper.

And he said: "They have to influence European law otherwise they are just going to find themselves presented with it. There are clouds over the horizon."

The row over TV rights highlighted the need to influence Europe, said Caborn.

The European Commission ordered an end to BSkyB's exclusive rights of coverage for Premier League matches, which resulted in Sky, Setanta and the BBC bidding against each other to win rights 'packages'.

I told them it was the system they had to talk about, and it's about how they want to improve football to govern itself better Richard Caborn

"We should be able to have collective rights without this problem with the Commission and that's why it's sensible to ensure that their voice is heard in Europe," he added.

"I told them it was the system they had to talk about, and it's about how they want to improve football to govern itself better."

And Caborn admitted he stressed to clubs the need to give their input into how Uefa should be changed if it is given more power by the European Commission in Brussels.

It is feared by many in the Premier League that any changes to Uefa's remit will restrict the League's independence to make decisions but Caborn said: "Everyone accepts there is a need for a new Uefa.

"Uefa itself will have to accept that otherwise it will not get any power handed to them from the Commission."

The Premier League said in a statement that they had found the meeting encouraging.

"Clearly we don't agree on everything," said the statement.

"But were encouraged by the minister's view that this debate should centre on achieving maximum subsidiarity for national leagues and associations.