UEFA president Michel Platini remains keen for domestic cup winners to qualify for the Champions League, despite failing to gather enough support for the proposal this week.
Platini was unable to convince Europe’s five big football associations to back his plan, which would have seen the domestic cup winners take one of the four places currently given to the top four in the respective leagues.
“We can do that in three years. We can come back on that,” he told BBC News 24 programme Hard Talk.
Platini denied being forced into an embarrassing climbdown over the issue, claiming it proved he was willing to listen to the concerns of others.
“The leagues are not in favour because they have to sell their own leagues and if they lost one of the four Champions League teams, they think they would have more problems selling their TV rights,” he said.
Platini scrapped the proposal in return for a compromise deal whereby, from 2009, six spots in the competition’s group stage are reserved for league champions from the bottom-ranked 40 countries in Europe.
“My best message is to have six more champions in the Champions League,” he said.
