Arsenal Manager Arsène Wenger said that "too much has been made of the demise of English teams in European competition as he advocated that the away-goal rule should be modified," according to Gary Jacob of the LONDON TIMES. Wenger said that "it was too early to draw conclusions because the English record had previously been good." In the three seasons from '09-10 to '11-12, the Premier League supplied six quarterfinalists, and in the three years before that there were 11 English teams in the last eight. Wenger said, "Two teams have gone out on away goals [Chelsea and Arsenal], which should be questioned because it’s a rule that is outdated now and that has to be changed. I’ve fought for that for a long time. In a direct knockout, it’s important that you’re very efficient and a bit lucky as well." Wenger believes that "the away-goal rule should be modified to count after extra time, like in the Capital One Cup." Wenger: "It should count maybe after extra time because this rule has been created in the '60s to encourage the teams to attack away from home. Since that football has changed. The weight of the away goal is too big today" (LONDON TIMES, 3/19). REUTERS' Mike Collett wrote Wenger "is not the first to call for the rule to be changed" -- FIFA President Sepp Blatter expressed the same view last October, saying it had "fallen behind the times." Blatter wrote in his column in the FIFA Weekly magazine, "It is time to rethink the system. Football has progressed since the 1960s, so the away goals rule may now be questioned. Does the away goals rule still make sense?" (REUTERS, 3/19).
