ROY Hodgson sees fewer domestic fixtures as one of the keys to future success in Europe for English clubs as he plots a qualifying course for Blackburn Rovers.

But the Ewood boss does not want too many changes to the game itself, as he fears it could lose some of its huge public appeal.

Hodgson, speaking to around 500 fans at an Rovers Supporters' Association function, gave the supporters the benefit of his knowledge gained over many years of coaching abroad.

And he also had intriguing views on referees who he felt might benefit from being bigger personalities -- to enable them to handle players who were household names.

Hodgson believes that the European competitions are now "sufficiently broad" and that enough has been done to make the rich richer via the Champions' League.

From a domestic standpoint, he said: "We in England should make sure the Premier League stays as strong as it is and pare down the leagues below to Premier League One and Premier League Two.

"If you are going to compete in Europe, I think you have to pare down to a 16-team Premier League One and a 14-team Premier League Two." On the game itself, however, he has mixed feelings - the backpass rule, for example, not finding favour with the Rovers boss.

"I think the game has survived reasonably well, even though things have changed enormously," he told the fans.

"The one thing that hasn't changed is the enormous interest of the English people in their national game. Before you start tampering too much with the game, you could tamper with it so much that people will fail to recognise it.

"The changes that have come about have not always been for the best.

"A lot of changes have improved it - the fact that there's no tackling from behind and that referees are harder.

"The one thing I don't think has is the backpass rule, because no goalkeeper in the world can really be expected to start dribbling around or doing something fancy."

As for referees, Hodgson feels the standard is quite good. But he said: "I think there's one thing they need to do and that is to be able to differentiate who's fouling who, especially in aerial duels.

"I think it (refereeing) has improved enormously in terms of fitness and their ability to communicate with linesmen, though I think linesmen should take more responsibility. "Referees also need a certain amount of personality and charisma to do the job.

"We tend to shy away from that kind of personality but it's a little bit more complicated than that.

"Sometimes, they make decisions for the referee in the stand when they might be better off making decisions for the footballers in the stand."

Hodgson acknowledges the reality of Rovers' situation, if a 12-strong European Super League were to be created tomorrow, they wouldn't be in it.

But he is also happy with the way things are progressing and said his squad had already shown what they were capable of - despite being a little short on numbers.

"We have allowed the squad to be reduced to the bare bones, because a lot of players needed to move on," he said.

"But it has been more than a good start, we are almost halfway through the season and we are still up there with the top teams."

As the manager himself pointed out, Rovers need to have an equally good second half to ensure they achieve their aim of qualifying for Europe.

Hodgson was frank with the fans, a fact which they appreciated, and stayed behind after the forum to sign autographs.

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