England, Spain and Italy would face losing a Champions League spot if Michel Platini wins the battle to become president of UEFA.

The three-times former European footballer of the year, who is challenging the present incumbent, Lennart Johansson, to become the head of European football's governing body, believes no country should have more than three representatives in Europe's premier club competition.

"Four clubs are too many," said Platini on Friday at the launch of his media campaign to become the next leader of European football after years at the top table of both UEFA and FIFA.

Is Platini showing concern or just after votes?.

Full article here

http://newtwg.sbs.com.au/championsleagu ... &cid=76573

No idea if he means it or not but I hope he does. Personally I would go even further and restrict it to a maximum of top two from every country.

In the short term I accept that it will reduce the quality of the tournament however in the long term it will be far better for European football to redress the balance of power away from the 'elite' leagues.

No idea if he means it or not but I hope he does. Personally I would go even further and restrict it to a maximum of top two from every country.

In the short term I accept that it will reduce the quality of the tournament however in the long term it will be far better for European football to redress the balance of power away from the 'elite' leagues.

I would like to see it go back to the original format of one club only,i mean it's called the CHAMPIONS league.

Thats not going to happen thou.

I agree wholeheartedly and it is something I (and quite a few others on here) have said before. However, like you say, that is never going to happen so I see reducing the number of qualifiers from a single nation as at least a step in the right direction.

ive said this for ages. its ridiculous when a team that finishes 4th in there league wins it. it makes it difficult for teams like us, man utd, barca, milan etc to try and win there league aswell as the champions league because teams like the arse and the bin dippers can concentrate on the champions league knowing they will get 3rd or 4th place in there league.

ive said this for ages. its ridiculous when a team that finishes 4th in there league wins it. it makes it difficult for teams like us, man utd, barca, milan etc to try and win there league aswell as the champions league because teams like the arse and the bin dippers can concentrate on the champions league knowing they will get 3rd or 4th place in there league.

Hmm.. probably true to some extent that the 3rd/4th spot qualification spots is now to our detriment but it is probably worth bearing in mind that the fact you could qualify in 4th spot is one of the key reasons we are now a title challenger.

Also would like to see the ability to play in the uefa cup after not qualifying for the next round thrown out.

Do any of you believe it was pressure from the big clubs that changed the format in the first place,especialy when rumours of a super league were being thrown about.

i agree with you there loz, but look at the teams that have got through to the semis in the last coupla years. its difficult to go for 3 or 4 trophys now. as much as i hate to admit it, it shows how impressive manyoo`s treble was. i doubt anyone will ever win 3 trophys again.

Well I would hope one change would lead to the other - by reducing the number of teams qualifying for the CL you will raise the standard of the UEFA Cup from the early rounds on and hopefully it would then slowly regain some credibility as a trophy to win. Only until it gets that credibility back will it stop being treated as a mickey mouse tournament that nobody really cares about.

I dont see how cutting the number of clubs would readdress the power issue... wouldnt that just make it simpler for the currently dominant teams to stay that way? Its a great cup competition and the very fact that liverpool for example CAN win it proves theyre good enough to be there.

the cl is great the way it is. There is no way i would take Roma or Liverpool or even one year newcastle for example out of it. Its what makes it exciting and makes the great sides prove themselves- anybody can win it if there is only 5 or 6 games to play.

I think that the idea of the champion's league should be to determine who is the best team in Europe - and at the moment, it is not doing that, and is hence fundamentally flawed.

Last year was the exception to the rule - Barca fully deserved to win it, as they were clearly the best team in the competition.

However, remembering back, Arsenal got within 15 minutes of winning it - and that would have been as big a travesty as Liverpool winning the year before.

The problem with letting nailed-on 4th place teams like Liverpool into the competition, is that when it comes to the cruch time of the season in February, March and April, they are out of contention for the Premiership title and play only for the Champions League.

I dont see how cutting the number of clubs would readdress the power issue...

Over time it would achieve it by enduring a greater redistribution of sponsorship money amongst more teams and countries and it would also mean that more teams and leagues become attractive to players when they are thinking of moving on.

debatable... depends on whether you believe a redistribution of TV funds across the 6 or so clubs it would effect would allow those clubs to challenge the top two in the country.

Well my thinking is that the UEFA Cup needs to regain some credibility and attractiveness as a trophy to win. This, to an extent, should happen as a result of stronger teams qualifying for it (instead of the CL) and this would be further aided by getting rid of mickey mouse qualification spots via the INter Toto cup and the fair play league.

In addition the prize money needs to be increased for the UEFA Cup (by taking some out of the CL Pot). UEFA destroyed the UEFA Cup by focusing on the CL and I now think they need to take proactive steps to rectify that mistake. By taking some of the prize money away from the CL and redistributing it to the UEFA Cup they would, in effect, be spreading cash around more clubs and hopefully playing a small part in financing other clubs who would be looking to challenge the 'status quo' in their respective league.

Dippers n arse fans in mass panic as the breaking news of Platini being voted in as the new President of UEFA hits home.

Platinis manifesto included, as his main objective, the desire to reduce the number of Champions League places to 3 from 4.

No more easy rides to a champions league spot any more boys.

http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hli ... presidency