Future positive for Platini

By Simon Hart

The resumption of the UEFA Champions League next week marks the final time that competing clubs will play a second group stage. After four years of the present format, from next season a single group stage will segue into a knockout round of 16.

Wenger doubts
According to some it is a mistake. Arsène Wenger, whose Arsenal FC side are in a glittering Group B with Valencia CF, AS Roma and AFC Ajax, said after last week's draw: "It looks like UEFA has got it wrong in cancelling the second stage. This is the cream of world football - look at any group and you can say it's exciting."

A step forward
But in the opinion of Michel Platini - a man who knows what it takes to win Europe's premier club competition - it is a step forward. The team crowned European champions in May 2004 will have played 13 ties over nine months, rather than the current 17-match marathon.

'It will be better'
Platini, who scored Juventus FC's winning goal against Liverpool FC in the 1985 European Champion Clubs' Cup final, told uefa.com: "It's better. Clubs are not happy because they want more money for more games. But for the public, newspapers, television, it will be better."

Demanding schedule
Certainly the presence of four Spanish and Italian sides - the latter for the first time at this stage - together with three from England and two from Germany promises plenty of thrills. Yet Platini, a member of the UEFA Executive Committee, believes the existing schedule demands too much of Europe's top players.

'Too heavy'
"When I played in Italy there were 16 teams and the European Cup was eight games," he said. "Now you start out in the Champions League with tough games in September and you're playing until the final in May. It's very difficult. I think the calendar is too heavy for players to be in good condition throughout the year.

A quicker game
"Also while we played many games in my time too, football was more technical then and today it is quicker. The game used to be about trying to play in the midfield, to construct play there. Now you go, you come back, you go, you come back. There is more running. Before, you beat a player by dribbling, now it is done by running."

More ball winners
Given the accent on athleticism, Platini believes coaches today "put out more ball-winning players than creators". A supreme creator and scorer of goals himself, he worries for today's practitioners of the playmaker's art. "Perhaps for some No10s it was easier to play football before than it is today. Perhaps the No10 is becoming more like a nine and a half - a second forward."

Fan of Zidane
Yet the cream still rises and it is not surprising to hear Platini's choice as the player he enjoys watching most - Zinedine Zidane, the Real Madrid CF playmaker who does for France what 'Platoche' himself used to. "I like Zidane - he is fantastic," said Platini, who also cited Michael Owen, Michael Ballack and Roberto Carlos as modern-day favourites.

Timeless appeal
Returning to Zidane, he explained: "I'm very proud that he's my successor. You can't compare us - he is playing now and I played 15 years ago - but what I can say is Zidane is good now and would have been good 15, 20 years ago, just as [Alfredo] Di Stéfano would be good today." In other words, football may change but every era brings players and moments of timeless appeal - good news for the game's planners.