Mourinho baffled by European seeding

Jose Mourinho insists a Champions League draw which could easily pit Chelsea against Barcelona in the group stage must be flawed.

Mourinho's Premiership champions have a one-in-five chance of being grouped with Barca when the draw is made in Monaco on Thursday.

The Chelsea boss said: "The way the groups are made is wrong, the criteria to be seeded in the groups. For example, the English champions Chelsea are lucky to be second seeds. For me, being champions is more important than the past for seeding."

Chelsea will be in the pot of second seeds and, if they avoid the champions of Spain and Europe, they are likely to face AC Milan, Inter Milan, Real Madrid or Valencia.

He added: "Inter Milan for example get more coefficient points for the Champions League than us even though Chelsea are champions of England and Inter Milan are only third in Italy."

UEFA seed the teams based on a coefficient calculated from the performances of the clubs in Europe over the last five years combined with the coefficient of the country they come from.

This system puts new football powers like Chelsea behind the traditional heavyweights of European football.