UEFA communications director William Gaillard said: 'The most opposed to those proposals were Liverpool and Manchester United - they do not want to see a change to the format at all.
'Across the top seven countries however opinion was mixed. The Italians are strongly in favour because they want to revamp their cup competition, the Spanish and the French said it should be up to their FAs to decide, while the Germans were split among themselves.
'The clubs from the smaller countries were generally in agreement.'
Telegraph:
Manchester United and Liverpool have told Michel Platini to scrap his plans to revamp the Champions League.
At a meeting of Europe's top clubs at Uefa's headquarters in Switzerland yesterday, United chief executive David Gill and his Anfield counterpart, Rick Parry, called on the former French international to abandon the shake-up which would see the winners of the FA Cup gain entry to the competition from 2009.
The proposals have split European football with smaller nations backing the scheme and the traditional super powers arguing for the status quo to be maintained.
In an attempt to avoid a stand-off, French and Spanish teams yesterday proposed a compromise which would give every country the freedom to decide how the last place in the Champions League is allocated.
That would still give the FA the freedom to choose whether England's fourth qualification place is taken by the fourth-place finishers in the Premier League or the winners of the FA Cup.
But the FA would be certain to come under pressure from the Premier League clubs not to change the present system.
Another solution proposed yesterday was to expand the number of teams in the group stage from 32 to 36 teams to allow more places for the champions from smaller countries. But Uefa fear an even bigger group phase would be unworkable.
Arsenal and Chelsea were absent from yesterday's talks and are not thought to share Liverpool and United's vehement opposition to the Platini reforms.
Their indifference backs up supportive comments mad by the clubs' respective managers [both Mourinh and Wenger had lent support to Platini].
Platini's plans, which also include moving the final to a Saturday, would ensure that three teams from England, Spain and Italy qualify automatically for the Champions League group stage via their domestic league position.