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THE head of the organisation representing domestic football leagues is against Champions League matches in Europe being played on weekends.
World Leagues Forum chair Christian Seifert used his new year’s speech as Bundesliga CEO yesterday to warn multinational club competitions to stick to midweek fixtures.
Seifert says “the weekend must belong to national leagues” because they are the lifeblood of football.
Currently, only the Champions League final is played on a Saturday and Uefa reiterated yesterday that they haven’t discussed moving other games from their flagship competitions to weekends.
But Seifert says legal action would be pursued if a “red line” was crossed and club competitions run by international competitions started to be played on regular dates of national leagues on weekends.
Fifa want to expand the Club World Cup but in a June slot when Europe’s major leagues are on their summer break.
Seifert became chair of the World Leagues Forum in November, succeeding Richard Scudamore, who left his position as Premier League chair.
Uefa are under constant pressure from Europe’s top clubs to maximise the Champions League, and playing weekend fixtures has long been seen as attractive to broadcasters in Asia and the Americas.