Chinese Champions League alternative backed by Spanish football chief

Javier Tebas, the head of Spain's top professional football league, has come out in support of a Chinese businessman's attempts to set up an alternative to the UEFA Champions League.

The Champions League is the most lucrative competition in European football, with the top clubs on the continent facing- off throughout the season competing for the prize.

The Dalian Wanda Group, run by China's richest man Wang Jianlin, will be buoyed by the news that one of football's most important figures is behind the plans to create a rival competition with increased revenue.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Tebas told the publication that there was no agreement in place, but that La Liga had been putting serious thought into the proposals.

He revealed that Spanish clubs were unhappy with certain aspects of how the current competition is run, particularly due to an imbalance in revenue streams between some of the bigger teams.

"If (the competition) is re-organised as Wanda has set out, there is a greater opportunity to generate more revenue from audiovisual broadcasting," Tebas said.

"We’ve also become more interested in [Wanda’s] proposal since Uefa announced they will be reforming [the Champions League], without seriously consulting — in detail — their broader reform plans with the other national leagues," he said.

The Chinese influence on European football has been growing steadily, with a number of top clubs, such as Atletico Madrid and both Inter and AC Milan, having been partly taken over by investors from the country.

President Xi Jinping has stated his aim of turning China into a world football superpower, capable of winning the World Cup in the next thirty years.

The Wanda proposals include the idea of unifying the Champions League with the second-tier Europa League, something Tebas said he was not against.

"The idea of unifying the two tournaments is not a bad one," said Mr Tebas. "But what is clear is we have to work something out with all the different national leagues and Uefa is not doing it."