Didn’t realise but the 6 clubs in Cl and EL will be kept apart in the next round of the LC. So not only do they enter at diff times to the rest of prem but now also essentially seeded all because they will have to play on alternate mid week games to which they have European commitments. Surely this is the start of the end of the LC as we know it? How long before European clubs are out, or all prem clubs and it because an EFL trophy?
Yes. At the time the smaller clubs went mad about it. Imo the only reason teams bother is ego and the conference league slot. There's no prize money so all the efl get is the slice of semi finals and final gate. I honestly think it's only the more traditional fans who defend it
Yes. But do the big clubs care? You get that tie and then it's away so you.get **** all bar your own crowd going and of course the tv money is tiny. IMO They'd all prefer to be paid to go away out of the prem slush fund then go invent a new cup to play and get gates there. The efl and parry have just tried systematically to get more cash out of the prem by horse trading this cup amd threatening to keep two legged semis etc.
Think they pulled out some stats last year when was arguments about should LC be abandoned and the amount of times that a club from L1 or L2 get drawn against one of the top clubs is such a small %. A lot are out by Round 2 when prem clubs enter and even more are out by time European clubs enter in round 3. Was similar when talking about the replays in FA cup. The stats say that lower teams rarely actually take the big clubs to a replay for that extra pay day etc
West Ham at home. Home tie is nice but West Ham bit of an awkward team. Depends if manager is serious about trying to win something or not.
Cl opponents. Pick 2 from each pot, one home, one away. Pot one: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Internazionale, Paris Saint-Germain, RB Leipzig, Real Madrid. Pot two: AC Milan, Atalanta, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Benfica, Club Brugge, Juventus, Shakhtar Donetsk. Pot three: Celtic, Dinamo Zagreb, Feyenoord, Lille, PSV Eindhoven, Red Bull Salzburg, Red Star Belgrade, Sporting CP, Young Boys. Pot four: Bologna, Brest, Girona, Monaco, Slovan Bratislava, Sparta Prague, Sturm Graz, Stuttgart.
Liverpool v West Ham Man City v Watford Arsenal v Bolton Man Utd v Barnsley Wycombe v Aston Villa Coventry v Tottenham Walsall v Leicester Brentford v Leyton Orient Blackpool v Sheffield Wednesday Preston v Fulham Everton v Southampton QPR v Crystal Palace Stoke v Fleetwood Brighton v Wolves AFC Wimbledon v Newcastle Chelsea v Barrow Bolded home ties v prem teams for some teams. I'm pretty sure if every team was offered say 200k extra per year out of the prem slush fund they'd take it rather than try this lottery. You just know they'd invent a new name for the efl cup and just play it themselves and collect more or less the same money again. Just won by an efl club from championship
Liverpool's Nunez hit with five-game Uruguay ban Darwin Nunez: Liverpool forward hit with five-game Uruguay ban - BBC Sport
It can but is that fair? 2 lesgue 2 teams get through to the 3rd round of fa cup. Both pretty equal in standard and finances. Both joint top and looking good for promotion. Suddenly 1 draws United away in FA cup and gets tv and ticket revenue. The other gets a home tie against another league 1 team. both go out, but suddenly one has been given a huge helping hand to help push promotion and buy players in jan window which the other can’t - all through a bit of luck. Isn’t that what everyone moaned about chelsea city and Newcastle? Getting unfair advantage because they lucked out with an owner who came in and just gave them a load of money? Would a fairer way not be to get rid and actually distribute the money down the leagues more fairly. Would teams in l2 want a huge risk of trying to get through In Cups and then get a lucky draw each season, or potentially just a gauranteed 500k each hand down from the prem each year instead?
No one really cares about it until about semis anyway. Attendances are always lower. It’s during a busy period at start of season and now have to have stupid rule where European teams have to be seeded due to the extended CL/EL format. One of only European leagues to have 2 domestic cup competitions, why do we need 2 when have the fa cup which is far superior plus a separate lower league cup for league 2 and 1 teams. Do we really need 3 domestic cup competitions in England?
I've said for years, just exclude the clubs that are in Europe. No byes, no seeding, just exclude them.
