PnP has pointed out that my first post is not quite right because of the special case of Chelsea but why is it obviously bad for say the second placed team in the PL to drop into the EL if they have a bad CL group stage. If they had been three places worse in the PL they would have been in the EL in the first place. Just because it didn't use to happen it doesn't mean it's a bad idea. There is a Rugby Union competition where there are four groups of four and the teams in group A play all the teams in Group B (and the same for Group C and Group D). This means they each get two home games and two away games but never play each other. But since they all play the same teams it is a perfectly fair way of qualifying. It would be an excellent idea for a football tournament but it has never been done before so on your logic could never be considered.
I'm not arguing that the CL winners shouldn't qualify, simply that they should not displace a team that has also qualified
I've been going on for yonks that the Ropey cup winners ought to automatically qualify for the CL to make teams field full sides, perhaps I should do one now based on the current state of affairs. However, I still believe that it would enhance the Ropey tournament.
#cough# http://www.not606.com/forumdisplay.php/134-Rugby-Union for those who can't find it. This is for proper football
Yes, thats why perhaps I should do one! However, short term pain for long term gain rings a distant bell.
If you win a competition you earn the right to be able to defend it. Spurs shouldn't have got in at our expense but they should have over the Turkish.
With the following exceptions: World Cup European Championships Copa America African Cup of Nations Europa League Note that's two UEFA competitions where winning the competition doesn't mean automatic qualification for the next one.
The dropdown's an awful idea, in my opinion. It devalues the competition, drags it out for even longer than it already would take and gives clubs that have failed a chance to win silverware against clubs that have succeeded. Two clubs that have already been eliminated from one European competition are now in the final for another, having knocked out one team that had to play 12 games to reach that stage and one bunch of cheats. They now play each other at a neutral venue with only a handful of tickets for their own fans and on a weekday. The whole thing's a farce.
The other thing to consider is each club's UEFA coefficient. The likes of Chelsea and Benfica have had an opportunity to improve theirs, whilst clubs that did better in the CL have had theirs damaged. How can that be right?
Of course it is, but it shouldn't be an either/or for CL qualification. 4th place currently merits qualification. It's illogical and (of course) extremely unfair that qualification should be lost because a team from the same country happens to be successful in winning the competition.
Nah, just stick Chelsea in the 1st preliminary round that starts about a day after the final. In all honesty, it's not something that's going to happen very often and UEFA had a very easy out this season, due to the Turkish match fixing scandal, but they chose not to use it. Given that they've already claimed it was unfair (which I don't think it was) and they let two teams in before when it happened, I don't think we'll see the same solution again.
I'm sure that could be addressed through the qualifying rounds. A pre-qualifying play off for the two lowest ranked teams. Although it's quite bizarrely happened with two English teams, the chances of it ever happening again are slim.
