I completely disagree No seriously though, you are right. There are three main reasons why EL was always destined to fail. 1. Sky don't back it 2. Changing of the name 3. No longer straight KO & CL rejects. Spurs v Basel Newcastle v Benfica Chelsea v Rubin Kazan Fenerbache v Lazio So in 3/4 ties there is a possibility a CL reject could get through at the expense of a club that qualified for the EL and has been in since the beginning. Hardly Fair.
Yeah, they got knocked out of the CL in the play-offs by Cluj and finished 2nd in their group behind Genk. Knocked out Juande Ramos' Dnipro and the side that put out Livepool, the moneybags of Zenit. Would be a mistake to underestimate them.
Thought you might respond to that DL although wasn't specifically having a pop at Chelsea - more at the tournament itself. Basel have a better claim to be still in the mix as they went through the Group stage, but they still ended up there after 'failing' in the CL. Not simply a case of 'not fair' if the overall effect is to diminish the cup itself. And of course the lack of Sky backing does make a difference. It may be interesting in coming months and years if BT decide to broaden their interest in the game as their increasing investment could end up in promoting the alternative to the CL....
Can't say that I agree with your assessment of Basel's entry diminishing the cup, to be honest, Relayer. They played in a qualifier and lost, but I think that such early entry to the Europa doesn't harm it. The CL dropdown definitely does, though. It's just stupid.
It's the general principal of being 'rewarded for failure' - which arguably could be applied to the 3rd or 4th best team in a League getting into the CL....
Fener were in the CL qualification rounds as well (so much for UEFA kicking clubs guilty of match-fixing out of their competitions...)
No worries, I've always said its stupid, taints the competition in my eyes, not sure why they thought group format would entice more viewers. Nobody wants to see Spurs play Dnipro in a meaningless group game (unless your a fan of those clubs). It was so much better when it was knock outs.
It just needs the winner to be awarded a place in the CL next season and teams would very quickly take it seriously. In addition, if the winner already qualified for the CL via their own league then they could give the place to the runner up, that would make it super interesting.
haven't read the other two pages to fully understand where folk lie on this, but I'll tell you this. I would love it if we beat Basel in two legs, COS I WANT TO WIN SILVERWARE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 5 YEARS! Ok, so I'm shouting but the point I'm making here is that even though the comp's name's ****e and no-one seems to take it seriously I'd love to Spurs in a European final again, I was 6 when they played Anderlecht ffs, come on lads!
Jesus, what happened??? I have lots of red bits under achievements, did I say something wrong or something???? -44708 reputation points. I know I said on another thread that Whinger should be congratulated as he is doing far better than I expected him to do with the pile of ****e that has has to choose from, thats not that controversial is it???
Join the club. I suspect you've been "Mousered" They would be the most likely suspects as they seem to have more than their share of infantile twats. Or, it could of course, be Peskie. He's another childish rep whore.
If you let me know who gave you the neg rep, I'll get some of the Mods with huge reps to neg him out of existence.
No matter who I click on out of Spurs fans I don't get the option to rep, it says I have to spread it around a bit first. Not only do I not like the implication of being a slutty with my rep but it just confuses me more about this bizarre rep system. I give up with it all, who cares, we all know who the good users are and who are the Arsenal fans anyway
