That's the kind of guesstimation I didn't know other people did. Add in that our chances of finishing top four are better if we go out of the Europa Thursday.
It's one reason. The minimal prize money, poor coverage and ridiculous dropdown are more pressing, in my opinion. The Thursday/Sunday thing is another massive reason.
Nope. They only care about a small number of sides, who almost always qualify for the Champions League. They even cater the Europe League for them, despite most of them never starting in it. They couldn't give a crap about most of the teams in their care.
Yes, agreed, but how? Upgrade the tournament by cutting out the teams from minor Eastern European leagues? And make more places available to the team's from major European leagues? Make CL places available for both the finalists? The Thursday/Sunday thing is always going to be a problem unless they can sort a deal with the TV companies to play on Weds - possibly alternate Wednesday's to the CL?
UEFA want to be all things to all people. It should be a knockout comp like the old UEFA Cup - but if not, reduce the number of games by getting rid of the stupid drop down from the CL. And stop the big leagues having teams finishing 6th or lower qualifying.
Stop the dropdown, alternate weeks with the CL with games being played on Tuesday and Wednesday and increase the prize money.
Tuesday? Sat to Tues is the same as Thurs to Sunday, so that won't help. The dropdown I agree with. It's a nonsense "safety net" for failed CL teams.
I'm old enough to remember when both competitions were straight knockout competitions from the word go - and, in the CL's case, for the champions only! Going back there just ain't going to happen, is it! Too much money at stake now!
True, but they could make the EL more interesting, which would attract more TV interest. Who wants to see endless qualifying and group stages? Knockout is better, especially if it was a random draw which didn't favour the big teams. Smaller teams can now play a dozen games and then face a CL dropout who they don't stand a chance of beating over two legs. Probably due to the half a billion pound deficit in finances? How is that fair and how does it generate and maintain interest?
Saturday to Tuesday isn't exactly the same as Thursday to Sunday, due to the kick-off times. More time to travel and recover.
Depends what time you play on Sat, of course, but there's very little in it - particularly if you have the late Sat kick off.
It was used in the playgrounds 30 years ago. Short for *****loid. Crass term for someone with Downs. If you have kids and don't understand them, Urban Dictionary is your friend. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mong
The meaningful difference is that both teams suffer the short preparation time equally that play on Tuesday. The problem with Thursday Sunday is that only the team playing Thursday suffers.
The guy on MOTD 2 said he couldn't see the problem with Europa as Thursday/Sunday is the same as champions league teams playing Wednesday/Saturday, the difference though is that Europa is guaranteed Thursday/Sunday but champions league not only alternate between Tuesday and Wednesday but more often than not they'll be a live game on the sunday so its more likely they'll play Tuesday/Saturday or Wednesday/Sunday I would scrap the Europa completely and merge it with the champions league, its too easy to get into Europe now. you could have a pre-qualifiying group for the 'Europa teams' from say august to oct and the the top team in each groups goes into the actual champions league and have a few more groups. Im sure they could fit the games in. Why are they splitting the knockout games at the moment just play them all in the same week
Why do the Champions and Europa League games usually play the same week? If those games could be played alternative weeks they would be able to play Wednesdays and Saturdays instead of Thursday/Sunday.Fans wouldn't have to fall into bed Sunday nightfor a few hours sleep before work on Monday.
The best botch that UEFA could do is to have Europa leagues 1 and 2. The winner of league 1 gets the CL cup, the winner of league 2 gets the UEFA cup. Four groups of four in each league. PL 1/2 go into league 1, 3/4 go into league 2. Adjust the participants per league depending on the standard of the teams in other nations. Top 2 in each group go into the KO stage. NO PARACHUTING INTO league 2 for LEAGUE 1 FAILURES. And UEFA to do PROPER WEALTH DISTRIBUTION of their annual lucre to help those leagues that will miss out due to the reduced revenues that the lesser qualifying process causes.
