There is a strong feeling among Premier League clubs outside of the Big Six that the plan to offer a form of the European Super League via the back door is similar to the plan to offer a form of the European Championship via the back door.
The issue was discussed at the Executive Committee meeting last week and a vote will be taken at the Congress in Vienna on May 10. It is expected to be approved.
For the first time in history, European football qualification will be based on something other than the season that ended.
There will be an extra two places in the elite club competition for European clubs who have failed to qualify via their domestic league, but who have traditionally done well in Europe's elite club competition.
If the reigning European champion finished fifth in the league, they would still have a good chance of making it to the group stage of the competition. They are currently fourth on the 10-year club coefficients.
If West Ham finish fifth, they will not get a place in the European competition because they do not have a good history in Europe. 89 clubs are ahead of them in the 10-year rankings.
One senior executive at a club told me that the introduction of a two-tier system would be for the biggest clubs, one for the rest.
Sky Sports will host a Q&A with Rob Dorsett at 2pm on the Sky Sports website about the potential changes to the Champions League.
New rules won't come into play until 2024.
There is a danger of a "clunk effect" where more and more places in the league are allocated by historical European performance and not by current domestic success, according to an executive.
The fear is that two might become four, or eight, with the European Super League becoming more and more of a closed shop, they said.
The idea of leap-frogging, whereby a team finishing fifth in the premier league automatically goes into the Europa League, is the one that most worries other clubs.
Sky Sports News has learned that all of the 20 premier league clubs asked the league to oppose the proposal for the wild card places.
The European Leagues group is thought to have succeeded in getting the idea to be removed from the league. I was told that there was a meeting on Tuesday.
The calculation of the coefficient will not be changed under the new plans.
If the Big Six finish in the top six in the league, they can all qualify for the competition.
The sixth-ranked team will qualify as long as the fifth-ranked team is in the top two from England, Spain, Italy and Germany.
In the last year since the European Super League collapsed, a number of officials have told me that the legislation that was offered in the background to appease the biggest clubs in Europe and England was a hugely controversial piece of football legislation.
The hope was that if the big clubs missed out on the playoffs, they would abandon their plans for a league. It worked.
The other nine elite clubs all backed out of the European Super League when faced with the huge backlash from their supporters.
I am told that there is a strong feeling within the majority of the clubs that this plan is against the spirit of the game.
They felt last year that the changes had sneaked in almost unnoticed, despite the controversy surrounding the European Super League.
The European Super League was a sideshow - it couldn't practically happen. But a "super league" within UEFA, via the Champions League, very much could happen.
The official told us that Europe's elite clubs got what they wanted. They wanted a safety net in case they missed out on qualification.
The European Super League was a sideshow. It is possible that a super league could happen within the EU.
In the wake of the collapse of the European Super League, the Premier League promised to introduce a new Owners Charter which would provide legal guarantees that clubs couldn't break away in the future.
The Government at the time said it was behind the plans to protect football.
The European Super League Charter is yet to be agreed upon or put to a vote a year after it collapsed. In the first few months after the European Super League, it was on the agenda of the Premier League shareholders.
Sky Sports News has been told by a club executive that the Owners Charter has been kicked into the long grass for now, with no prospect of it being voted upon at any of the upcoming meetings.
It is too sensitive to discuss right now, according to sources.
There may be compromises in terms of the fixture congestion that the new format poses to the English football calendar if the final details of the wildcard system are not worked out by the end of the year.
I am told that compromises to the efficient system are very unlikely. The idea of two extra places for the tournament is set in stone. Big changes are afoot next month, because whatever is put before the Executive Committee is voted through.
The idea of the winners of the FA Cup being able to claim a place in the top tier of European football is controversial.
I was told that if there was a fifth spot available for the FA Cup winners, that would be applauded. That is not what is on offer.
If the FA Cup winners have done well in Europe, they will only get a spot in the league. This favors the big clubs again.
If Crystal Palace were to win the FA Cup, they would not be included in the new European wildcard system. If they won the FA Cup, they would be in a good position to get a wild card into the European competition.
One executive told me that there could be two teams lined up at Wembley for the final with very different prizes on offer to each.
The idea that you can get bumped if you win a trophy is wrong.
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