MARK Warburton has warned that “dangerous” plans to restrict entry into the Champions League to Europe’s elite clubs would be hugely damaging for Rangers as well as the Scottish national team.
And Warburton has urged UEFA to act decisively to ensure proposals by the most powerful members of the European Club Association, who have threatened to break away and form a super league, amount to nothing.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the Bayern Munich chief executive and ECA chairman, has revealed to a German newspaper they want the current qualification process reviewed by the tournament organisers.
Warburton, who is hoping to be involved in the Champions League with Rangers in the future, believes preventing the most successful clubs from lesser football nations from being involved would devalue the tournament.
“If that is the process that has been started I think it’s a very dangerous one,” he said. “I can understand from a commercial perspective that certain huge clubs have been out of the Champions League for the last couple of years and smaller clubs have been in the Champions League for the last couple of years. They will say they are not maximising an opportunity.
“But it’s a competition. If you’re a small-time club and you have a fantastic year and you recruit well and you train well and you qualify then I think you should get the rewards. The moment you take that away you devalue any competition. It’s a Champions League so the champions of the respective countries should be in it.”
Warburton added: “It’s not just about Rangers, it’s about the whole ethos, the whole idea of it. The fact is if that you look at the Premier League there are some massive clubs that don’t qualify. Teams that come fifth and sixth don’t qualify. This year it could be Manchester United and Chelsea.
“They are two of the biggest clubs in Europe, but they won’t qualify and possibly and smaller-time clubs will do. But that is just the nature of it. It is all part of the competition and rewards teams for doing well.
“If you take that away, if you are going to focus purely on the top clubs, it will be like having a league without promotion or relegation. I think you will devalue the competition. I think it would be a great shame if that was to be the case.
“It is a concern. If there is no response, if there is no reassurance, then it only deepens the mystery and the concern. I am sure the powers that be here are doing everything possible. You would like to think that some reassuring statement comes out to allay any fears and concerns.”
Rangers will be eligible to play in either the Europa League or the Champions League in the 2017/18 campaign if they win promotion to the Premiership this season and finish high enough up the top flight table next term.
Warburton believes it will stunt the development of the best players at Rangers and Scotland if threats by the most influential ECA members to break away and form a European super league comprising the leading clubs from France, England, Germany, Italy and Spain come to fruition.
“It is a vitally important matter,” he said. “The idea is to win the highest league and then get promoted to compete against the best. Best against best is the only way to challenge your players, to see what they are about and develop them.
“Belgium are the No.1 team in the world just now in terms of producing players. Their players are going off to the best clubs and yet their domestic league might not get into the Champions League. I find that ludicrous.
“You talk about the young players here. Are they behind Celtic at the moment? Yes, because Chris McCart and the boys at Celtic have been playing in the Next Gen and the UEFA Youth League. Our aim must be to get the boys here in that competition.
“Best against best is the only way you improve. Beating a team 5-0, 6-0, 10-0 here serves no purpose. You have to make sure you challenge best against best. You take that away from the national team and it will have massive negative impact on Gordon (Strachan) I’m sure.”
Meanwhile, Warburton has dismissed suggestions that the appointment of Lee Clark as manager will make Kilmarnock more difficult opponents in their Scottish Cup fifth round replay at Rugby Park tomorrow evening.
"Everyone speaks about the impact of a new manager,” he said. “I don’t think it exists. Why does a club sack a manager? It might have lost 12 out of the last 13 games. The law of averages says you are about to win one.
“If they suddenly win a game just because of a new manager, then you could say the players weren’t trying as hard under the previous one, which would be an indictment of the players.
“Lee McCulloch has done a great job in the past couple of weeks, drawing against us at Ibrox and then getting a good win at Motherwell on Saturday.”
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