KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTS: Arsene Wenger is not impressed by proposals under review to expand the competition format in the UEFA Champions League.

The European federation, seeking to come up with a formula which would head off threats of super league, has circulated clubs and leagues with an evolved system which would offer clubs 10 matches each in the first round rather than the current six and also lead to matches being played in January

Wenger, the former Arsenal manager who is now technical department head of world federation FIFA, is critical.

He said: “This concept does not respect ‘sporting merit’. I don’t like it at all. Clubs always want more money. To get more money, they want more guaranteed matches. Fans want more meaningful matches.

“Modern football has to find a compromise between what clubs and supporters want but if we don’t respect sporting merit in a logical way, we are not going in the right direction.”

FIFA was forced, by the Covid-19 pandemic, to put on ice its own proposals for an expanded Club World Cup which should have kicked off in China this year.

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