Platini reveals Champions League reform plan

الخميس، 15 مارس 2007 - 17:54

كتب : Hatem Maher

Former France legend Michel Platini revealed his plans to change the UEFA Champions League qualification system.

During his election campaign, the newly-elected UEFA president promised to reduce the four seats allocated to Spain, Italy and England.

Although he faced criticism from several managers in Europe's heavyweights, Platini said he intends to apply the new system which will see lowest-placed clubs from England, Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Portugal play against each other in the final qualifying round.

"It's not about disturbing England, Italy or Spain, but about finding a good balance," Platini was quoted as saying by Sky Sports Network on Wednesday.

"My problem is that the two English, Spanish and Italian teams in the final qualifying round do not play against each other, they play against smaller teams.

"Perhaps the teams from the bigger countries, who have four and three qualifying teams, should play against each other."

The new measures will be adopted to help teams from smaller countries make bigger impact in Europe's premier competition.

"We want to add some of the other countries to the competition and to do that we have take some of the others away."

"I'm not sure that the fourth clubs from Spain, Italy and England are more important than the champions of Poland, Czech Republic and Denmark," he added.

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