UEFA president Platini outlines Champions League changes
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tribalfooball.com - March 14, 2007
UEFA chief Michel Platini has outlined plans for a new era in European football including a proposal for Champions League qualifying play-offs.
Platini is proposing a new final qualifying round where there could be play-off-style matches, where the lowest-placed qualifiers from England, Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Portugal would play against each other.
The current system works on seeding, meaning clubs from the major leagues usually avoid each other in the final qualifying round and have easier games against smaller teams.
Platini said: "It's not about disturbing England, Italy or Spain, but about finding a good balance.
"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.
"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, the Czech Republic and Denmark."
Any changes to the format would not come into force until the 2009-10 season.
not a good proposal i guess top teams playing each other -
i am beginning to hate this stupid president -
Don't hate him. He will give Scotland more chances in UCL qualification. I think SPL champs currently have to get past the final round of qualifiers.Originally posted by allentyb:
i am beginning to hate this stupid president