Liverpool have only 31 days before they embark on the protracted odyssey that is their Champions League title defence, after Uefa yesterday offered them a place in the competition's first qualifying round.

Yesterday's decision means that if the European champions are to join Chelsea and Arsenal in the group stages they must emerge unscathed from a total of six qualifying matches. The first of those, due to take place on July 12th or 13th and with the return leg on July 19th or 20th, could take Liverpool to such diverse and distant destinations as the Faroe Islands and Kazakhstan.

The English Football Association and Premier League had lobbied the European governing body strongly to accept Liverpool into the third qualifying round of the competition, but this was rejected in what was a unanimous decision taken by Uefa's executive committee.

Yesterday's ruling does not provide the European champions with what it terms "country protection". As a result, Liverpool's Merseyside rivals Everton, who beat the Rafael Benitez' side to fourth place in the Premiership, could await in the second qualifying round.

There can be no meeting with Manchester United or Arsenal before the second round proper of the competition, however, because they, with Liverpool, are among the top eight seeds; the Premiership champions Chelsea, though, who are in the second seeding pot, could be drawn in the group stages.

Should all five English clubs in the competition qualify for the group stages, it will reduce the rewards available to them. Before Uefa's promotion of Liverpool, the split would have been for Chelsea to receive 40 per cent of the television income associated with participation in the Champions League, for Arsenal to take 30 per cent and United and Everton 15 per cent each. The proportions, though crucially not the value of the fund, must change if all five clubs feature in the competition proper. "(That) will be a burden on the other English-based clubs," conceded Uefa's director of communications William Gaillard yesterday.

There could be other costs after a season of Champions League success and relative Premiership failure, which, until yesterday, would have consigned Liverpool to the Uefa Cup. They are committed to a pre-season tour of Japan at the time of the second qualifying round; they have not ruled out withdrawing from the trip.

There was one other winner after yesterday's decision. The Scottish Cup finalists Dundee United will be elevated to the first round proper of the Uefa Cup, which Liverpool have now vacated.

Meanwhile, Manchester United ticket prices are to rise 54 per cent. The increase is to be spread over five years, so it equates to a rise of nine per cent a year. It is higher than the rate of general inflation, but United fans had feared they could be hit with annual hikes of 25 per cent-plus.

That is the point about Glazer's business plan: on the face of it, it is not radical at all - it is a continuation of the old board's strategy. Glazer is assuming a top-four Premiership position; so did the old guard. In the Champions League, he expects no better than the knockout round of 16; United's directors had assumed the quarter-finals.

In terms of transfer budgets, Glazer is promising more cash - a net £25 million a year. During the past seven years United averaged about £20 million.

The leaked document should, however, be put in context - it is just a business plan. Sometimes companies meet their business plans, sometimes they do not.

In United's case, the consequences of failure are now deadly serious. They are revealed in separate documents which are the legal agreements between Red Football, Glazer's takeover vehicle, and its financial backers - JP Morgan for the senior debt of £265 million, and three New York hedge funds for the pay-in-kind loan of £275 million.

The hedge fund agreement shows the three funds will be breathing down Glazer's neck from the off. The documents speak of a "test period" to run from August this year until July 2007. If United, in the guise of Red Football - who bought 11,535 shares off chief executive David Gill yesterday at £3 a go - fails to achieve 85 per cent of their target operating profits in that period, the hedge funds start to accumulate extraordinary powers, including taking control of the club.

No wonder Alex Ferguson will be handed £25 million for new players this summer - Glazer does not just need success, he needs it instantly.