Barcelona president Sandro Rosell has joined the bandwagon of people who are calling for the number of clubs playing in top flight Spanish, Italian and English leagues to be cut down to 16.
According to Rosell, La Liga is too big and needs to be cut down to 16 teams. Rosell who also doubles up as the European Club Association Vice President, said that UEFA is in danger of witnessing a mass walk out of some of its biggest club’s if the association refused to consider the demands made by the ECA.
“The objective of reducing from 20 to 16 teams is to give more space to our players,” Rosell said.
“We want a bigger Champions League and hope one day we could play perhaps Barcelona versus Manchester United on Saturdays. It’s something all of them would have to agree to. That includes the Premier League.”
Honestly, if anything the reduction of teams playing in top flight La Liga, Serie A and the EPL leagues will only work against the clubs and their followers, however, on the flip side it could see players playing far less matches which would ultimately reduce the threat of injuries.
That said, such an agreement can only be reached by both parties in 2014 as this is when the ECA’s current memorandum with UEFA ends.
“If UEFA and the ECA reach an agreement then that’s good for both parties. If not, with or without the UEFA umbrella, the ECA is entitled to organise their own champions’ competition by themselves. In the worst case scenario, we will go away from UEFA.”
Those were some very harsh words from Rosell and considering the history of the Champions League and the clubs involved in the competition, it is hard to see how such scenario would play out.
Personally, i am against a reduction of clubs in top flight leagues for the reasons mentioned above and also because the clubs are only looking out for their own interests and not those of their players.
Photo Credit © DAVID CUELLA.FOTO
