Derek Johnstone: Karl-Heinze Rummenigge's Champions League revamp is great for greedy Euro elite...but it's an utter disgrace for football

And that is why people at the club and the fans will have

taken an interest in the talk regarding the future of the tournament this week.

Rangers may not be ready to challenge for a place in the top competition in European football yet, but that is the level we want to see the club get back to once again in the future.

Hopefully we won’t have that chance taken away from us.

Clubs from outside the top leagues are right to be worried about the proposal that would see some teams guaranteed a seat at the top table.

All the big clubs, who are greedy in the first place, are now getting together.

It is all about the money and they are afraid of missing out. They want the biggest sides to play each other all the time, but people will get fed up of it.

How many times have Arsenal played Barcelona in the last few years?

It is great once every so often, but when it happens as frequently as it has then it is a turn off.

Football at that level is going to end up solely for the elite countries and clubs and that is nonsense.

They want the biggest audiences for television so they can get even more money in. But that isn’t what football should be about.

What is next? Is the World Cup only going to be for a handful of the top ranked

nations? Do smaller countries not get a chance to qualify and play at major tournaments?

It would be disappointing from Rangers’ point of view, of course it would, but this is an issue that will affect big clubs right across Europe. Is football now for the elite? It should be for everyone.

It is harder and harder for teams from the likes of

Scotland to get into the Champions League, but these new proposals would make it even tougher. It is a nonsense.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the Bayern Munich chief executive and ECA chairman, is behind this move and he will have sounded out other big clubs across Europe. He wouldn’t do this on his own.

He must be confident they will have the backing of the likes of Barca, Real Madrid, the Milan clubs and the English clubs. He will be getting positive messages from them.

For those clubs, it would be great. For football, it would be a disgrace.

There are clubs who want to better themselves but they will be told they aren’t allowed to get in to the top level of European competition.

They will still have the

Europa League, but that is a secondary competition and you only need to look at the attendances to see that.

Everyone wants to be in the Champions League and everyone should have the chance to do that. To make it elitist is not what football should be about.

It is not what Uefa, or Fifa should stand for. They should be for every club, every country, every player and every fan. If this proposal goes through, that certainly won’t be the case.

Do all these clubs just want to break away all together and play each other every week? It is a massive step they are trying to make and hopefully it doesn’t come to fruition.

If you have a handful of the top clubs that are involved here, then there might not be an awful lot that Uefa can do. There is a lot of talking to be done before we get to that stage but, for me, it would be a scandal if it was allowed to happen.

What is the point in winning the Premiership if you don’t get a shot at the Champions League? That is one of the main incentives for players that come to Rangers and Celtic.

They know that if they win the league they could be playing at the highest level in

Europe. They aren’t here just to play in Scottish football.

We need to get in with the Scandinavian teams, the Dutch, the Belgians. All the clubs and National Associations have to lobby Uefa and put their case forward.

If it takes several meetings so be it, they have to oppose it. Everyone wants to be in the Champions League.

These clubs need to be ready to oppose this, they need to be ready to say ‘this is what we are going to do’. There has to be a fight because every club wants a chance to play in the Champions League.

You can talk about the Europa League or an Atlantic League, but it is in the Champions League where everyone wants to be.

It is the pinnacle of club football and if you don’t have a chance of getting there, then leagues across Europe, including ours, will suffer.

The outcome of the talks surrounding the Champions League will have a major impact on Rangers, Scottish football and leagues across

Europe for years to come.

Hopefully our top clubs won’t be left on the outside looking in and we still have a chance of competing at the highest level for many years to come.

RYAN HARDIE hasn’t featured as often as he would have liked for Rangers this season and he has now joined Raith Rovers on loan to get more first-team football.

I have watched Ryan a few times for the Under-20s and there is no doubt he is a talented player. Mark Warburton rated him highly enough to give him a new contract last year.

He is quick, he can score goals and he works really hard for the team. He has plenty about him and he is someone who, in time, will hopefully become a really good player for Rangers.

At this stage of the season, Mark looks like he is going to go with more experienced players and he will stick with the likes of Kenny Miller and Nicky Clark to fill in while Martyn Waghorn is out of action in the coming weeks.

With Michael O’Halloran and Billy King also there, Mark does have options in the final third and Ryan’s chances were probably going to be limited again.

Being on the bench and getting five or ten minutes here and there is no use for a young player. You need to be playing games and playing at a good level.

It is wonderful being involved with the first team at Rangers, but Ryan will know himself that this move is the best move for him to go to Raith.

He is playing in a good side against the same teams that Rangers are up against every week and hopefully he will go there and get a regular game.

It is a chance for him to go out, learn the game, work on his game and score goals. You have to be playing in competitive games to improve.

He will maybe be disappointed that he hasn’t played more for Rangers so far this season, but he only has to look at Barrie McKay to see what a loan move can do for you.

Hopefully Ryan can follow Barrie’s example and he will be a better player when he comes back to Ibrox and he can make an impact for Rangers next season.

AS Rangers prepare for their third successive game on a plastic pitch this weekend, Duncan Miller from Glasgow asked DJ what was the worst synthetic surface he ever played on?

I am not a fan of plastic pitches. I never have been but the worst I have played on was at Loftus Road.

I think QPR were one of the first clubs in Britain to get a plastic pitch and it was like playing on tarmac.

A goal kick would take one bounce and go right through to the other keeper.

You couldn’t go to ground and people picked up so many injuries on that pitch. I know they have improved since then and they are

better these days but I am still not in favour of them.

Thankfully we don’t have

surfaces like that one at QPR these days but we should be playing football on grass. That’s the way it’s meant to be.