• Proposal aims to give clubs from smaller nations more European matches • Competition aimed at qualifying-round losers from Champions and Europa Leagues

European football leaders have discussed the possibility of creating a third club competition.

At a meeting of the 54 Uefa members on Wednesday, they explored the merits of a new competition for teams who fail to advance from the qualifying rounds of the Champions League or the second-tier Europa League.

They also considered whether the competition could be reserved for teams from smaller countries who never participate in the group stages of the existing cups.

The discussions are at an early phase, and any changes to the structure in Europe would not be introduced until at least 2018, when the current round of TV-rights deals expire.

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The Scottish Football Association’s chief executive, Stewart Regan, said that the intention of a new competition would be to allow teams to “maintain European football throughout the autumn and perhaps into the new year”.

He said: “It’s a discussion around whether it’s a separate third competition exclusively for smaller countries who then relinquish their place in the Europa League and/or Champions League or whether it’s a competition that basically acts as a further safety net for those clubs that enter the Champions League or Europa League but are typically out by August and then [instead] they fall down into a third competition,” Regan said.

Such a competition would appear more attractive to smaller clubs rather than Premier League clubs like West Ham and Southampton, who failed to reach the Europa League group stage this season.

“It will give more opportunity to the clubs who never get in the final stages to participate in Europe,” Volodymyr Geninson, executive director at the Football Federation of Ukraine, said.

It would chime with the Uefa president Michel Platini’s strategy of giving smaller nations greater access to competitions, whether by expanding the European Championship to 24 teams or spreading the hosting of Euro 2020 across the continent.

“We are really supportive of this,” said Geninson, who was part of the “Top Executive Programme” meeting in the Malta resort of St Julian’s. “For them, it will give opportunities not to finish the [European competitions] in August. It will give them opportunity to play in September and October.”

The competition could be completed by the end of the calendar year, rather than going through to the conclusion of the European season as the Champions League and Europa League do.

“Obviously finance will be important and what’s the value … in light of the costs of travelling around Europe and playing in a competition which some will see as lower value or not as premium as the Europa League,” Regan said. “I don’t think anyone would want to participate in a loss-making competition for the sake of it.

“There is certainly a development benefit for some of the smaller nations to experience international football as opposed to only having one or two games with one or two teams and being out by August.”