It seems on Friday that UEFA will announce that the winner of the Europa league will earn a place in the CL. ( probably ver early qualifying rounds) This will not start until 2015-2016. Thoughts? Good? Bad?
Good. Would certainly spice the competition up and teams would take it much more seriously (ourselves included)
long over due to be honest, at least there is incentive now in this comp and hopefully this cup will get some credit back it deserves, should make it more financially beneficial as well.
I disagree on principle as qualification for the two competitions should be unrelated. To my mind it's akin to saying if the winner of the FA Cup was in the Championship then they would be promoted to the Premier League the following season. There's already a way to qualify for the CL, just as there's already a way to win promotion. In practice, my objection would depend on how it is implemented - will it be a new place, or like the CL will it be at the expense of an existing league place? If it's at the expense of an existing league place then that seems faintly ridiculous - in theory Wigan could get a decent draw and a bit of luck and win the EL next year, thus becoming our CL representatives, potentially at the expense of a team like Arsenal or Liverpool who earn it through their league performances. It's bad enough when the CL winners aren't good enough to qualify through their league position, having the EL winners in would take the piss a bit if it's at the expense of better teams imo.
Don't like the idea purely because it would be at the expense of a team that finished higher in the league.
Decent points all. But the major problem is that as the second tier competition its lost its kudos. At least the CWC and UEFA Cups had unique points re qualification. The Europa has become something of a cheap version of the CL, right down to group-stage low thrill games. And further diluted by the presence of Chelsea and Man City 'qualifying' via CL elimination. It needs to get a decent sponsor with some wedge behind it, change format to a pure knockout, and bar CL failures from concillation entry. If they then get a CL place at the end of that road, it looks a far more attractive competition...
The last four year's has seen A.Madrid (twice), Porto and Chelsea win the Europa League, none of them would look out of place in the CL, in fact they were all probably in CL the same season they won the EL. I do agree with some of Swarbs points though. It would be unfair should they qualify at the expense of another team from that country. I'll use last season as an example: Chelsea finished sixth but won the CL meaning fourth placed Tottenham missed out. What if eighth placed Liverpool had won the EL? This would have meant third placed Arsenal would have missed out too. Would this mean Man Utd would have had to have entered into the qualifying rounds despite finishing second? At what stage does the EL winner enter the CL? Surely it can't be a group stage spot? Generally, I agree as its a good incentive to improve a potentially decent competition. But then, I have said for a long time that the FA Cup winners should get the fourth CL spot too.
I would expect the EL winner to have to go through the qualifying stages from whatever stage the 4th placed team had to join. (In the case where the country would otherwise have 4 teams). I dont think the EL winner would get the same rights as the CL winner which goes straight into the group stage.
I understand your point Swarbs but the two cups are already merged. Chelsea weren't good enough for the CL but won the EL. It's structure at the moment is a farce. I mean Chelsea made 30 mil for being **** in the CL them effectively stole the poxy 9 million winners cheque for the EL out of the hands of a team that entered & played all the way through it; clubs that recognize for that year they are 2nd tier, being told by all that its a 2nd tier cup then watch a supposed 1st tier team dancing around with that very cup. So either separate the competitions completely which lets be honest would end the EL or stop CL losers going down to the EL & allow the EL winners qualification to the 1st round qualification (pre lims) of the CL. Chances are that if a Wigan somehow do it in the EL they'll not get passed the CL qualification to the group stages. If they do and then come last or third well, that would be the same level as a City or Chelsea this year wouldn't it? As for taking a spot off existing CL spots...well my view is: serves you right for only going for fourth spot. That's the risk you take. While the team may have worked hard & played many games to get fourth; so do the team that wins the EL. We can't keep having a 2nd tier European cup that apparently means nothing unless a first tier drop out wins it.
It's merely confirming the lack of value in the competition itself. As they're basically saying "we know this is a second rate competition, but if you stick with it & manage to win the thing after playing 17 games, then we'll let you in the 'proper' one next year" Another dumb decision in a long line of dumb decisions.
CL should be for prem winners end of If they have to add other places it should be for the winners of the domestic cups. Then they have won something to be there. Ie champions anything less makes a mockery of the competition. In the event of treble or double winners teams should be awarded byes into the next round but it will never ever happen.
All I would like to see is qualifying and group stages dropped in favour of an un-seeded knockout format.
so would you get rid of it altogether Tobes? Would you expand the CL or are you in the CL should be for champions only? I personally would like a return to League Winners cup (champions only), by all means make it a couple of league groups to extend if for the money men & sponsors rather than straight knock out at start then quarters etc. And then a domestic cup winners cup, straight knock out. Doesn't put too much pressure on, lets call them "not top 4 teams" with smaller squads if they win them. Only time a place gets passed on is in the cup winners cup if league winners do the double (or domestic treble)
I agree with the idea that this must be an additional place, not take a place from someone else, but I disagree with your qualification argument. The Championship and Premier League are league competitions, and the condition for promotion is demonstrating good performance in the league. The Champions League is a European cup competition, so I don't have a problem with the idea of winning another European cup being an acceptable condition for qualifying. The current situation is already nonsense, and some kind of change is necessary. Last year we had Chelsea win the Champions League, fail in the league but be allowed in at the expense of THFC, then crash out immediately. Also, they were humiliated by Atletico Madrid in the Super Cup. Atletico had demonstrated the ability to suceed in European competitions, so why not take that into account instead of just domestic league performance. The idea that domestic leagues are not perfect indicators of quality is already present in the system in terms of gaining/losing spots based on coefficients. Qualifying for the Champions League by winning it should also be an additional position like it was when we won it.
Well at least the EL team in the CL would be the Champions of the Europa League, slightly more justifiable place in the CL than the champions of 4th place
I would like to see Arsenal punished for their inability to win anything, e.g. if you haven't won a domestic or European trophy in 10 years then you cannot be entered. No time wasters please.
