The Rational Ref | Arsene Wenger's rant against the away-goal rule is self-serving

With Uefa and AFC Champions League matches about to kick off again following the long winter break, the debate about the rule on away goals has reawakened and refuses to be put to bed anytime soon.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has asked Uefa to scrap the rule because he reckons it would take away the negative approach that clubs fall into during the two-legged knockout stages of the Champions League and Europa League competitions.

"The weight of the away goal is too heavy, too big and is not justifiable any more," said Wenger in December. "People are surprised by my question. But I think it is a problem in the modern game."

The Frenchman explained that the away-goal ruling, which Uefa introduced in 1965, actually arose during the non-televised era of the old European Cup. He said the priority for travelling teams was not to concede any goals.

This was when teams would grudgingly travel many hours across the continent to compete in what Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho recently called "19th century football". Travelling teams would trudge off their parked buses, and then haul themselves on to the pitch to "park the bus" again.

Wenger further claims that because there were no television cameras "you got kicked everywhere". "Nobody said a word, so to encourage the teams to play they said OK, we give you [the away-goal rule as] an incentive for the away game," said Wenger.

"In the modern game everything is on television and analysed. There is no big difference anymore. Sometimes I think there is a counter-effect as teams play at home not to concede goals. At home the first thing managers say is let's not concede a goal." Wenger's argument is justified and appears altruistic, but is not altogether the whole story.

From a referee's perspective the true motivation for his stance, which is typical in soccer whenever managers and players make complaints, is because he has personally fallen foul of the rules.