This season's group stages have already seen Arsenal beat Slavia Prague 7-0 and Liverpool thrash the Turkish champions Besiktas 8-0.

The Champions League has been labelled the new Carling Cup by Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp, who claimed it was "a stage for the reserves to enjoy a few days in a pretty foreign town and a run out".

Wenger fears Platini's proposals would undermine the competition further and he also harbours concerns about the status of the UEFA Cup, after watching Bayern Munich withdraw Franck Ribery after just an hour of last night's 2-2 draw with Bolton.

"You have to be careful not to change the Champions League too much by bringing in even more weaker teams, because you could find yourself with games five and six with no meaning. That would be very dangerous for the quality of the competition," said Wenger.

"The UEFA Cup has a different problem. The mistake there is that, with groups of five, the best three teams qualify [for the knock-out stages].

"That means with four points you can go through. That is not serious.

"Last night in the UEFA Cup Bayern Munich took Ribery off after 60 minutes, Bastian Schweinsteiger after 70 minutes to prepare for the game on Saturday. That means it becomes a friendly game."

Wenger made eight changes to his side for Arsenal's midweek draw in Prague, which was enough to secure them passage into the knock-out stages with two matches remaining.

Cesc Fabregas and Alexander Hleb were both rested and Wenger confirmed he will give two other senior players a few days off when Arsenal travel to face Sevilla on November 27.

Platini's proposal is based on the desire to make the Champions League more accessible across Europe.

Only 15 of UEFA's 53 member nations are represented in the group stages this year.

He is determined to include six champions from the bottom 40 countries of UEFA's membership, though demands for cup winners to also be included received a lukewarm reception from national associations.

A compromise is expected to be put forward whereby each association would decide whether the cup winners should replace the lowest league qualifier for Europe's top club tournament.

In England, that would almost certainly maintain the status quo of four clubs qualifying from the Premier League.

But the fourth-place finisher may have to play two qualifying rounds instead of one.