The Tottenham Hotspur boss has called upon UEFA to bring their rules in line with the modern versions of their European competitions
22:30, 23 Jan 2026Updated 22:30, 23 Jan 2026
Tottenham Hotspur head coach Thomas Frank has called for UEFA to change their rules for European competition(Image: )
Thomas Frank has called on UEFA to change their Champions League rules after Tottenham sporting director Johan Lange brought up problems at a Premier League meeting.
While Spurs are struggling in 14th place in the Premier League with a visit to Burnley to come this weekend, their Champions League form has been in complete contrast. Frank’s side sit fifth in the league phase, have already qualified for the play-offs and can take their place in the round of 16 if they win at managerless Frankfurt on Wednesday.
One cause of consternation though has been the squad rules in European competition, mainly those concerning injured players. Those who have been injured for 60 days can be replaced until they are fit again and Spurs had brought in Mathys Tel for Dominic Solanke for the win against Slavia Prague last month.
However, with Solanke back fit now, Frank had to inform Tel that he would need to come back out of the squad for Europe’s elite club competition ahead of the midweek win against Borussia Dortmund, in which Solanke scored.
“Of course he was disappointed. That’s natural. I completely understand him. He’s disappointed but he’s been very professional. He’s a strong character,” said the Dane.
The Tottenham boss believes that the expanded European competitions, with eight matches in the league phase alone, have not been reflected by updated rules as players are pushed beyond the limit by the schedule of domestic, European and international football.
“Mathys has done well for us in many, many ways. It was him or Dom and I chose Dom because of his experience. He did, luckily, very well,” said Frank.
“But that’s not the same as (saying) I don’t like Mathys at all. He’s started four of the last five games, I think that’s a clear signal that I also trust him and believe that he can do something good for the team and the club.
“I think UEFA need to modernise those rules in general. When they made the rules we had six group games, now we have eight. Before, we had no games in January. A lot of the group stage was done after four games. Now with the new format you need to fight until the end, more or less, every team.
“We also have gone up from three to five substitutions, that means you use more players. In general, the matches keep creeping up.
“For the Euros and the World Cup (we have) bigger squads, so I think we need to look into it. Also the changes we can do after January [for the knockout stages], now it’s only three. I can’t see why that shouldn’t be more, why you can’t change during if you have injuries.
“We’re not the only club who is struggling with this, definitely not. I know Johan brought it up to the Premier League meeting last year. That’s something that we need to look into which would have helped the situation with Mathys.
“And going back to that, it’s a football decision, it happens. It’s not that I think it’s nice to make that decision, but I try to make the best decision for the team every single time. Unfortunately it impacts people, it impacts Mathys in this case and of course we need to get around him.”
Rules changes can be decided by clubs themselves by raising them initially through UEFA’s Clubs Competition Committee and European Football Clubs. Proposed changes are then passed on to UEFA’s executive committee if there is sufficient support, as happened with the new player replacement rule this season, which allowed Tel to briefly come back into Tottenham’s Champions League squad.
Tel will come back into the reckoning for the trip to Burnley as will Pape Matar Sarr, who has returned from Senegal’s triumph at the Africa Cup of Nations. The 23-year-old was one of a number of players and staff who fell ill during the final against Morocco and had to be hospitalised briefly. Frank had some good news though on the midfielder.
“He’s back here and was on the pitch [on Thursday] to do a little bit,” he said. “He’s ready to train and ready for selection for Saturday.”
At Turf Moor, with long term injuries to Lucas Bergvall and Rodrigo Bentancur and Joao Palhinha a doubt, Frank could call upon Yves Bissouma, who had fallen out of favour at Tottenham ahead of playing for Mali at the Africa Cup of Nations. The 29-year-old, who is out of contract this summer, has had a season fragmented by injury and disciplinary issues before coming in from the cold to impress against West Ham last week.
The Tottenham boss maintains that his relations with the former Brighton midfielder is good and Bissouma has been impressing him in training.
“That [relationship] has been fine along the way. He’s been pretty unlucky with injuries, more or less throughout the season. So now he’s back, trained very well. I think he had a good impact when he came on the pitch against West Ham. So I’d say fine,” he said.
“No [he wasn’t being punished], that was clear injuries. He made a mistake, that was a consequence of that. Then he got injured literally two days later in training. That’s why he was out of the squad.”
Frank believes that whoever can unlock the Mali international’s consistency will have a top player on their hands.
“Bissouma has a great top ceiling. I think his qualities we can all see, on the ball, really wanting the ball, constantly seeking it, looking forward, driving forward. Very good technical abilities. Physical stature. He’s a strong player,” said the head coach. “The best players, they can consistently perform, day in, day out, years over years. So that’s what he needs to find.”
Frank poured doubt on Bissouma departing in this winter transfer window despite his contract situation and did the same for Tel, who has been linked with a loan return to France.
“It’s fair to say that we have not that many players!” he said. “And [Bissouma] is a good player and he did very well against West Ham. He’s a Tottenham player. The only thing we’re focusing on is he’s available for Burnley on Saturday.
“No [more moves out]. The players we have in our squad we need to keep, to have enough players to play with and perform with. One thing is the Dortmund game, where we did not have that many available players, it’s difficult to change the game if you need it, or keep the freshness up.
“You can see we put Jun’ai [Byfield] on, which was lovely, by the way. I think he did fantastic. I think it was clearly a player with a big potential, but also putting Pedro [Porro] into the midfield.
“You need to be a little bit creative sometimes. The good thing is we definitely have more players available for Saturday, but we need all the players available.”