AS.com

UEFA's president Michel Platini was interviewed for the website 'ouest-france.fr'. He noted that the organisation will "make a decision in 2014" about the format of the European club tournaments between 2015 and 2018. The Champions League could grow to include 64 teams.

"There's a debate in progress to determine the format of the European competitions between 2015 and 2018. We're going to make a decision in 2014. There's nothing decided yet."

Regarding having five referees in football matches he stated that it is one of his "goals as president of UEFA." "It was adopted in the European Championship and at the moment in Italy too and they're very happy. France has to do the same. Four more eyes are better to see. After that if the referees make mistakes it's not my fault." He also confessed that "those that make mistakes should be removed."

He added that having five referees would be cheaper (2.3 milion euros) than goal-line technology, the cost of which would be 32 million in the first year and 54 million over five years.

Another rule he offered his opinion on was the use of video. "When there's a difficult situation, maybe video would be necessary." Platini would use it for offside calls because they're comething that are "very difficult to judge for referees."

Michel Platini said he was "totally against" the 'triple penalty' (penalty, with a red card and suspension) and recognised his wish to "abolish this rule" saying that "a penalty and a yellow card will be enough."

"If Messi wins his fourth Ballon d'Or it's because he's earnt it"

The UEFA president gave his opinion about the Ballon d'Or and the possibility that Messi could beat the Frenchman's record of winning three consecutive awards. "Records are there to be broken. Thierry Henry has now scored more goals than me for France... If Messi wins his fourth Ballon d'Or it's because he's earnt it."

To end with, Platini spoke on other matters like education to remove racism from football, the globalization of the game and his wish to see Zinedine Zidane take charge of France in the future.