Spurs are only English club in pot 2 Pot 1 (by association rank): please log in to view this image Liverpool CC: 91.000 please log in to view this image Chelsea CC: 87.000 please log in to view this image Barcelona CC: 138.000 please log in to view this image Manchester City CC: 106.000 please log in to view this image Juventus CC: 124.000 please log in to view this image Bayern Munich CC: 128.000 please log in to view this image Paris Saint-Germain CC: 103.000 please log in to view this image Zenit St. Petersburg CC: 72.000 Pot 2: please log in to view this image Real Madrid CC: 146.000 please log in to view this image Atlético Madrid CC: 127.000 please log in to view this image Borussia Dortmund CC: 85.000 please log in to view this image Napoli CC: 80.000 please log in to view this image Shakhtar Donetsk CC: 80.000 please log in to view this image Tottenham Hotspur CC: 78.000 Pot 2 or 3: please log in to view this image Benfica CC: 68.000 please log in to view this image Lyon CC: 61.500
Not sure I would agree with the Europa League winners going in to Pot 1, even if that does help us in this instance. Actually looking at Pot 2, being in Pot 1 isn't all that much of an advantage, Pot 2 has some seriously heavy hitters in it.
Zenit full stop takes the piss. Any of the teams in pot 2, with the exception of maybe Shakhtar, would kick the **** out of Zenit.
What about Zenit over Ajax? Won the league, got to the semi-final, knocked out Real and Juve... Pot 2 and they have to qualify.
It's this weird thing where Pot 1 comes from the Champions of the top leagues rather than based on club coefficient. If Liverpool or Chelsea had won the PL then Benfica would have been in Pot 1. In the circumstance where both Europa and Champions league winners won their own league I think Genk would be in Pot 1!
I think I preferred it the old way to be honest. It put the onus of performing on the club rather than the league they come from. It also makes it near impossible for other leagues to catch up to the top leagues because the top leagues have more clubs in the competition, and those clubs also get easier groups.
It's pure money spin ... not having a pop at either Spurs or Liverpool especially... but this year's "Champions" League final was contested by two teams that have never won their own domestic title under the governing body that supplanted the Football League over a quarter of a century ago ...
It would be a shorter and probably more interesting contest especially with the fact that it would be straight knockout with that number of teams.
