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Berlin – Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu denounced the idea of staging Champions League weekend, as suggested in a recent proposal for reform of competition.
"Barcelona's position is clear: the national league matches have to take place on the weekend, and those of the Champions League during the week," he said in an interview with German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Thursday.
Bartomeu, however, gave wide support to the reform of the Champions League, believing that the competition should develop.
The controversial reform plans proposed by the European Association of Clubs (ECA) in March foresaw radical changes in the Champions League starting in 2024, ranging from the introduction of a three-tier system to weekend.
The projects have attracted much criticism, especially from the big European national leagues, while they feared that they only represent the introduction of a European Super League by the back door.
Bartomeu, who sits on ECA's executive board, said Thursday that he considered plans as an "evolution, not a revolution."
"There are different ideas," he said. "Right now, in 2019, we do not know what the reforms will look like."
The 56-year-old, however, said he was "against the Super Leagues" and insisted that Barcelona would resist the matches of the weekend of the European competition.
"The Spanish league is very important to us, and as a club we have to protect it and make sure it's still interesting," he said.
Somewhat surprisingly, Bartomeu also said that he "appreciated" FIFA's plans to extend the Club World Cup to a 24-team competition, prompting criticism from ECA.
The Barcelona said that he was in favor of a "new World Club Cup", but admitted that there remained "a need for talks".
"Clubs and players are the protagonists, so FIFA should listen to them," he said.
"We are the ones who take the risk, who invest in the infrastructure, so we need to talk about timing, format and distribution of revenues."
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