Ilkay Gundogan hits out at Champions League reform plans

Ilkay Gundogan has criticised the proposed reformatting of the Champions League and described it as "the lesser of the two evils in comparison to the Super League".

UEFA recently announced plans to expand Europe's premier competition to include 36 sides, with the group stage subsequently lengthened to ten games instead of six.

Manchester City will more than likely be impacted by the proposal with their hectic schedule set to grow even further when the model is introduced in 2024.

The recent controversy over the Super League has seen the Champions League reform skirt under the radar a little, though Gundogan is keen to bring it back to the attention of the fans and has insisted its current format is what makes the competition so great.

The Germany international took to his personal Twitter account to write: "With all the Super League stuff going on...can we please also speak about the new Champions League format? More and more and more games, is no one thinking about us players?

"The new UCL [Champions League] format is just the lesser of the two evils in comparison to the Super League. The UCL format right now works great and that is why it's the most popular club competition in the world - for us players and for the fans."

City have never been crowned Champions League winners, though they're in with a real chance of lifting the trophy this season having reached the last four where they'll face Paris Saint-Germain.

Their best performance in the competition to date came back in 2015/16 as Manuel Pellegrini guided them to the semi-final stage before being knocked out by La Liga giants Real Madrid.

Pep Guardiola was brought in with the hope he could lead them to European glory, though so far the best he's managed is the quarter-finals.