Sky Sports and talkSPORT presenter Jim White has criticised UEFA‘s plans to revamp the Champions League from the beginning of the 2024/25 season.

Four more teams will enter the group stage of the competition but at least two of these will be taken up by clubs who hadn’t qualified through their final position in their domestic league.

It is believed a coefficient will be used to hand out spots based on a club’s performances in Europe over the previous five years. White used Arsenal, who finished seventh in the Premier League last year, as an example and contrasted their situation with Rangers’:

“The notion that the champions of Scotland should be compromised by the seventh-placed side in the Premier League is an outrage.”

The fact that UEFA have come to this decision suggests that a lot of pressure has been put on them by the big European leagues, and it seems to be a way to placate teams who fear missing out on Europe’s top competition. It does appear as though sporting merit has gone out of the window.