Sepp Blatter has put his support behind Barcelona president Sandro Rosell's call to reduce the number of clubs in top divisions to 18 clubs.
FIFA president would like top divisions reduced to 18
Sepp Blatter has put his support behind Barcelona president Sandro Rosell's call to reduce the number of clubs in Europe's top divisions to 18 clubs.
The FIFA president believes that the move would help ease the fixture congestion and help clubs that are struggling financially in the current economic crisis.
Rosell made the call to take the Spanish league down from 20 clubs to 18 earlier this season and was met with derision in some quarters, but Blatter thinks it is not a new scheme.
"I completely share the idea," the game's supremo told
El Mundo Deportivo. "What is true, however, is that I suggested a similar idea about 15 years ago.
"When I was Secretary General of FIFA, myself and former French Football Federation president Jean Fournet-Fayard said that 16 teams would be better, but we did not have many echo our thoughts.
"The clubs and the associations all turned a deaf ear."
Solution
Blatter thinks that if the group of the continent's most powerful clubs, the European Club Association (ECA), support the idea then something could well start to happen.
"Now we will have to see if the ECA support Sandro Rosell in depth," Blatter continued. "The reduction is not just to solve a problem of fixture build-up though.
"Football, like society in general, is in a serious financial situation and for some clubs it is terrible. We must look for a solution that will help them all, but is not that extreme."
Despite the calls by Rosell to reduce leagues across Europe, Blatter thinks that each country should be judged on what is best for them individually.
"Each country has its own particular requirements that have to be looked at," he continued.
"In the case of Spain it would be one solution, but also changing the format of the Copa del Rey and other things could be studied.
"It is a national matter that I cannot enter into personally, but I do like that someone as important as the president of Barca is saying the things we said some time ago."
