Uefa President Michel Platini has come up with another idea.

Seeing that the Europa League is struggling to gain in interest – among clubs and supporters – and is strongly overshadowed by what goes on in the Champions League, he is now thinking about eliminating the secondary competition and expanding the main one.

It had happened a few years ago, when the Cup Winners’ Cup was cancelled and incorporated in the then Uefa Cup (which later become Europa League). The Cup Winners’ Cup was no longer attractive, very much in the same way that today the Europa League is nowhere near the Champions League – in terms of importance and financial gain.

So Platini is planning a phasing out of the Europa League, possibly as early as 2015, with a simultaneous expansion of the Champions League.

As things stand now, the main phase of the Champions League is made up of eight groups of four teams, for a total of 32 teams. While 16 of them qualify directly through their domestic championships, the other half qualifies through a rather enduring three preliminary rounds, played mostly in July and August. Club and nation ratings determine how many teams qualify from each country and at what stage of the preliminary round they start to take part.

What Platini intends to do is to double the number of participants in the main draw of the Champions League to 64 teams. The way the qualifying rounds would work would give clubs coming from nations with little or no history in football a good chance to make it in the top 64.

One hurdle that Platini has to overcome is the pressure from the top nations – this is because the new plan would limit the number of teams from one country to just four. These days, the maximum is still four, but clubs of the top nations can qualify for the Europa League – a chance that would be eliminated if this competition is abolished.

A name has already been coined for this “new” competition – it will be called the Super Champions League.

But whether it will see the light of day, and whether it will be formed according to Platini’s wishes, remains to be seen.