JUST WORRY ABOUT GETTING THERE FIRST

From the Observer:

Europe's biggest clubs are on a collision course with Uefa over the future of the Champions League. A new battle over the competition's structure has reignited the power struggle between the Continent's leading teams and the European game's governing body.

In a little-noticed move last month, Uefa announced it would scrap the Champions League second group stage at the end of this season as a way of reducing the number of meaningless games disliked by both fans and television viewers. Uefa president Lennart Johansson acknowledged that the change would not be universally welcomed, but insisted it was necessary to stop overexposure and safeguard the tournament's long-term appeal.

Sven-Göran Eriksson said on Friday that cutting four matches from the Champions League could improve England's chances of winning things by reducing his players' workload. However, most of Europe's leading clubs oppose the move. The powerful G14 group, which includes the likes of Manchester United, Liverpool, Real Madrid and Juventus, has already called for Uefa to change its mind.

Result: stalemate. If Uefa has its way, the competition will still have 32 teams divided into eight groups of four but after the first group stage, the 16 surviving clubs will take part in two-legged knockouts to decide who reaches the final. Thus finalists would play 13 games to get there, rather than the existing 17.

But the clubs fear fewer guaranteed games will mean lower revenue; something they say they cannot afford, especially with the financial meltdown affecting European football. Given that every Champions League tie Manchester United play at Old Trafford produces around £1.5m in ticket money alone and millions more in television income, the stakes on this issue are very high.

A source at Manchester United, whose chief executive, Peter Kenyon, is G14's vice-president, said: 'Uefa seem to believe that they need to cut the number of games in the Champions League in order to protect its value. But we don't agree. We believe their mind can be changed and that we will be successful in that. We are confident that our case will prevail.'

When the second group stage was added to the Champions League in 1999, Sir Alex Ferguson called the move ridiculous and pointed out that European games should be the icing on the cake for clubs.

Three years on, he still believes that - but does not know what the perfect structure is. 'It is too much [now], there's no doubt about that,' he said yesterday. 'But the problem is I don't know what the ideal solution would be. Seventeen games is definitely too many. Twelve or 13 would be about right for me. But Uefa say it's either 17 or 11, and 11 isn't really enough.'

But while many of his fellow bosses agree the competition is too long and drawn-out just now, their chairmen want the money even meaningless games generate.