By Chris Harris
Arsène Wenger believes that extending the knockout phase of
the Champions League has made the competition more
'spectacular'.
Europe's premier club competition adopted a second group stage
when the tournament expanded in 1999. But four seasons later Uefa
jettisoned that format and returned to a single group stage with a
straight knockout from the last 16 to the Final.
At the time Wenger felt that the second group stage was a potential
stepping stone to a European League. But he believes that interest
in the Champions League has been reignited since the current format
was brought in.
"It looked like it [a European League] could happen when we
had the second group stage but the television did not want to buy
it anymore," said Wenger.
"In fairness I supported the idea of cancelling the second
group stage. But, with a distance, I feel that for the spectacular
side of the competition they [Uefa] have done well.
"Every game with the direct knockout now creates a big
interest. We could sell now maybe 200,000 tickets because everybody
wants to see this game [between Arsenal and Milan]. It has created
big interest."
Wenger would advocate one more tweak to the Champions League format
- he would abolish seedings for the knockout stage. The Frenchman
explained why at his pre-match press conference.
"I like the idea of completely open competition after the
group stage," he said. "You cannot have protection
through the group stages and then again through the direct
knockout. It would be a bit unfair to protect teams
twice."
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Copyright 2013 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source 20 Feb 2008
