Di Stefano: Winning The Champions League Now Is Easy

Real Madrid's honourary president, Alfredo di Stefano, would no doubt be cheered if the club was to win this season's Champions League, but the ex-player insists that the competition is debased from its European Cup days.

"Champions, Champions! Champions of what? Let's look at the dictionary," he blasted, no doubt reflecting on the four teams entering from countries such as Spain, only one of which is a champion.

"Maybe it's more interesting now - more teams, more possibilities - but if teams play more for monetary reasons then they should at least change the name."

"You can be fourth in the league and be a 'champion!' You can have an off-day but still recover in another. That never happened in my day."

"Of course it was more difficult then," he boomed in the face of his interviewer. "Forty thousand times harder. It was always a knockout competition."

"We went five years without being eliminated, though. We knew that we could win in our ground."

However, he did admit that the best teams win these days, as he refused to state that his 'Quinta del Buitre' side could guarantee the title.

Looking to more recent times, he remarked, "Football is better than before, and it will improve further. Improved training, food, travel, facilities... the players also have more means. People will say the same in 2100."

Comparisons are odious, as they say, and Di Stefano was not apt to discuss old and new players - except one.

"Let's see if we can find another Zidane," he said.

"Was I reflected in him? I hate these comparisons. I was a footballer who played for a team, not a sole emblem. I did what I could, but I'm no Tarzan."

"If you want to know what I think of Zidane, I'll say he has been the classiest footballer of late, and a team player. He's a good person, a companion, a friend - an extraordinary man."

"We need friends because selfishness is not a virtue in football. Footballers who play selfishly make for bad play, and you can't form a team of them."