UEFA is obviously keen to change the present set up of Champions League and Europa League. We know the arguments for and against the present set up, we will no doubt continue with that debate for a very long time, but for the moment let's put that aside.
Imagine you have the chance to reorganise the whole thing. Starting from scratch what would your Europe wide competition be?
My plan: Europe is a big place, travelling from one end to the other for an often very uneven contest is draining on a clubs players and resources for sometimes little in the way of true competition. The English football league in earlier times was divided for the smaller clubs into regions. We had Third Division North and Third Division South for example. When travelling was more difficult it avoided a club like, say Bournemouth having to travel to somewhere like Doncaster for a game.
Why not divide Europe into regions for a Cup competition! e.g. say East, West, North and South. Teams in each region would qualify from their respective league and play teams in their region. The top say 4 from North would then play the top four from the West and East would play South the top four from each would then play each other until you reached the final. Numbers qualifying would need to be fine tuned but that's the gist.
Travelling cut down for all but the winners (who will be probably be richer anyway) more involvement from fans who could support their regions teams not just their own clubs. The final stages of such a competition would be supported by the whole of Europe as South met East and so on.
So what would you like to see, what kind of tournament would you set up? One competition or more?
Over to you!
Imagine you have the chance to reorganise the whole thing. Starting from scratch what would your Europe wide competition be?
My plan: Europe is a big place, travelling from one end to the other for an often very uneven contest is draining on a clubs players and resources for sometimes little in the way of true competition. The English football league in earlier times was divided for the smaller clubs into regions. We had Third Division North and Third Division South for example. When travelling was more difficult it avoided a club like, say Bournemouth having to travel to somewhere like Doncaster for a game.
Why not divide Europe into regions for a Cup competition! e.g. say East, West, North and South. Teams in each region would qualify from their respective league and play teams in their region. The top say 4 from North would then play the top four from the West and East would play South the top four from each would then play each other until you reached the final. Numbers qualifying would need to be fine tuned but that's the gist.
Travelling cut down for all but the winners (who will be probably be richer anyway) more involvement from fans who could support their regions teams not just their own clubs. The final stages of such a competition would be supported by the whole of Europe as South met East and so on.
So what would you like to see, what kind of tournament would you set up? One competition or more?
Over to you!
