Adriano Galliani has blasted Juventus, Sampdoria and Palermo. “Italy will have three Champions League spots and we can thank the Europa League sides.”
Italy has been in a battle with German football for several years over who deserves a fourth qualification place in the top competition.
Serie A's position in the UEFA rankings will drop because Juve, Sampdoria and Palermo are all out of the Europa League in the group phase.
Napoli will find out tomorrow against Steaua Bucharest if they are also crashing out of the tournament.
Adriano Galliani has blasted Juventus, Sampdoria and Palermo. “Italy will have three Champions League spots and we can thank the Europa League sides.”
Italy has been in a battle with German football for several years over who deserves a fourth qualification place in the top competition.
Serie A's position in the UEFA rankings will drop because Juve, Sampdoria and Palermo are all out of the Europa League in the group phase.
Napoli will find out tomorrow against Steaua Bucharest if they are also crashing out of the tournament.
“The Italian sides have collapsed in Europe and from 2012 we will have only two teams going directly into the Champions League with the third going through a preliminary round,” said Galliani.
“It is damaging to our football. For all this we must ‘thank' above all those who played in the Europa League.”
Juventus, in particular, were expected to do better in the competition, but drew all of their group games.
Meanwhile, Milan Vice-President Galliani also wished Inter good luck for the Club World Cup.
“Of course I say ‘Forza Inter!' In Serie A we are rivals, but when playing on the international scene absolutely not.
“When we won the trophy three years ago, I felt like a world champion and certainly not as if we'd won a summer tournament.”
The comment was aimed at Roberto Mancini, who as Inter boss had joked about the importance of the Club World Cup when Milan took the trophy.