From The Times:
'As Manchester United nurse wounded pride and dented profits after being knocked out of the European Cup before the quarter-finals, the club’s leading officials are calling for past form in the tournament to count beyond the group stage.
David Gill, the United chief executive, said yesterday that he had raised with Uefa, European football’s governing body, the issue of a seeding system in the last 16 that would give the bigger clubs a better chance of progressing.
AC Milan, United’s conquerors this season, are among the clubs that support the idea of a restructure, after other big teams went out at that stage, including Arsenal, Real Madrid and Barcelona.'
"You may say it is a selfish attitude but it cannot be good for Spanish television that no team from Spain reached the last eight and you also have to look at the sponsorship deals going forward," said Gill.
"At the moment we effectively have a random draw after the group stage, yet when the draw for the group stage is made, each club's co-efficient is used. Given it is unlikely we will ever go back to a situation of having two group stages, maybe we should use a system during the knockout phase that also reflects the rankings."
"AC Milan were discussing this before we played them, so it is not a knee-jerk reaction but you could have a situation where the holders were rated number one and they played the 16th ranked team, two versus 15, and so on. I don't think there will be any changes for next season but it is an argument being made and I am sure Uefa will look at it."
Stop wincing at the back the man is only trying to improve his bottom line.