Platini May Have His Work Cut Out - 29/01/2007

New Uefa president and former French international Michel Platini may not find it so easy to take away England's fourth Champions League place as he has promised. Anyone who has been on the executive committee of an international organisation (as I currently am) knows that even the most influential president cannot dictate to it and Platini's position has been weakened by his small majority over former incumbent Lennart Johansson. Any decision to restructure the Champions League would have to be taken by the entire executive committee of Uefa. Sepp Blatter, to whom he was once personal assistant, may run Fifa as a personal fiefdom, but that will not be possible in Uefa. What is evident is that tensions with the G-14 organisation of top clubs will increase. Platini has said that he 'detests' them and they have been touting their own plan for a second group stage to provide more revenue.

Italy, Spain and England currently have four places each in the Champions League. In what was seen by some as an election winning ploy, Platini promised to reduce their places to three and to give the extra places to East European countries who currently have to fight through qualifying rounds. The plan was immediately condemned by Bolton's Sam Allerdyce who would lose out under such a scheme. Allerdyce argued that it would increase the gap between the elite clubs and the rest, but Sir Alex Ferguson said that a good competition should not be tinkered with, while Arsene Wenger doubts whether Platini would be able to make good his threat.

Platini claims to be a friend of supporters, so perhaps he might turn his attention to ticketing at the leading tournaments where so many seats go to sponsors and corporate backers, only working their way back to the average fan at inflated prices on the black market. One thing he is not keen on is video technology to assist referees. Indeed, at one time he advocated extra assistant referees behind each goal such is his faith in the 'human system'.