...and increasing Champions League from 32 to 64 clubs. The only perceived benefit I can see is that this would remove the ridiculous 'safety net' that clubs currently have whereby - like both Manchester clubs last season, who didn't qualify for the knock out stage of the CL, but automatically go straight into the 'lesser' competition in the later stages. How can that be fair? It's like domestic teams losing in the F A Cup early rounds but getting a free pass into the late stages of the Capital One cup as a reward.!! Surely Uefa should focus on rewarding success - NOT failure What do others think of these proposals? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20523405
It just makes a mockery of everything I held dear in european club competitons. Bring back 1) European cup for the champions only, 2)Uefa cup and 3) cup winners cup. They all meant something, gave different clubs the opportunity to play in europe and were not dictacted by cash. Have to go before I start ranting
probably saves them some money. this will also benefit some of the smaller clubs (e.g newcastle this season), who might get knocked out earlier and can concentrate on the League not too interested really as i don't think we'll ever be in it realistically
I don't understand whether it is to ensure every European country gets a team in the Champions league or to increase the amount of teams the stronger nations get. Familiarity will breed contempt and people will turn away from watching the same obscure European clubs that are now in the Europa League. Platini is scared of a breakaway and the loss of his powerbase.
The Europa League is a waste of time, no point having it. It hinders teams more than anything, I remember an interview with Bolton Chairman who told Gary Megson not to bother with it because it was costing them money to be part of it. I think it could work personally, would make it more interesting and probably enable a few shocks and surprises rather than having Barcelona romp some Cypriot team I have never heard of. I know it still might happen but there won't be such a polar in the class of teams, there will probably be some teams in between who may make it interesting. I don't think they would be able to have a Champions League place as a reward for winning League Cup though, otherwise it's make the competition lose it's value. When a Championship team can get into the Champions League it loses it's credibility a bit.
No disrespect to their fans but Celtic are in it and I have very little doubt that their team would struggle in the Prem and may even get relegated. Scottish football is at an all time low. Callie can go top of the Scottish Prem for instance.
That's a good point, this system could be good for leagues like the Scottish Division though, could introduce more money into the league. I worry for Scottish football because I actually can't really see many ways of it even getting better, obviously money being pumped in would help but why would anyone put money in to it? Nothing going for it.
I would like to see the Europa league as a straight knock out for all the top trot clubs in Europe, with qualifiers obviously and a by to a certain round for champions league qualifiers. I think it would be exciting.
I think something similar to the original set up would work better. There are 53 member associations in UEFA, that means 52 champions each season as San Marino doesn't have it's own league. Champions League: The champions of the top 40 ranked nations at the start of the season go into the competition and are drawn into ten groups of four. The winners of each group and the six best second place teams go through to a straight knock out stage. UEFA Cup: Straight knock-out competition. Second and third placed from each nation (104 in total) go into the first round of the competition. The 12 teams that missed out on the Champions League join at the second round stage. Cup Winners Cup: Quite simple, if you won a cup competition in your country you enter. If a team finishes in the top three and wins a trophy then the team finishing fourth in the league goes into Europe instead. Of course, none of this would ever happen because UEFA can make more money from the Champions League containing Man Utd, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich etc that in can having the Champions League with the national champions of Finland playing the Champions of Latvia.
Really like Dazz's suggestion. To be honest, you say UEFA don't want Finland vs Latvia, but take Man Utd's group this year, and besides the Utd games I don't think any of those games would have appealed to UEFA either, it's not really an argument they could use to prevent it, especially as it's tantamount to saying Sky run football.
The thing is, with he current format and having four teams from England, four from Spain, three from Germany etc, it's almost guaranteed that the big teams will go through. You'l always end up with one sneaking through, like Apoel Nicosa last season, but generally you'll end up with the big teams in the knock-out phase. By having only one team from each nation you run the risk of losing one or two of the big teams but also by having a really small, obscure team getting through. Could you really see UEFA being happy with a CRF Cluj Vs Nordsjaelland final? With the current set up that would never happen, by having only one side from each nation in the competition it's a lot more likely. It all boils down to money. They can get more for the TV rights to a Man Utd game in Norway than they can for a Nordsjaelland game in England.
It comes back to the old but very true and wise saying...If it aint broke don't try and fix it! Perhaps the jumped up Frenchman needs a new project to focus on as he hasn't got any real and more pressing matters to deal with like combating racism and the rise of football hooliganism has he! The champions league has been debased and defiled ever since they allowed non champions to participate. It started as a perfectly good and worthy competition between the true champions of every league in Europe only to be sacrificed like a lamb in the abbatoire for the sake of greed and big business! I agree that Euefa should scrap the dismal and uncessary Europa League but to further dilute the champions league is just plain wrong. If it was a consumer product it would have quite rightly been banned under the trades description act years ago. What would we call the new "Champions League"? The top 8 teams from each country league....
I really like Dazz's suggestions too. Get it done, I say - all it takes is a Michel Platini mask and a Joey Barton accent! As said, it will never happen, for the reasons stated. I've lost interest personally, sadly. I'd love to see the competitions as they were, when they actually meant what they were intended to mean.
Point taken, but I'd like to think the ranking system would prevent it, mcuh as it does now. Each club have a ranking, and so by using that you'd still end up with groups which keep the top sides separate, each accompanied by a couple of mediocre nations and someone to make up the numbers. That's going to maintain how things are at the moment with the majority of the top sides going through. If one of the minnows manage it, they've still got a long way to go, and a lot of decent sides to play, until they reach the final.
Platini knows that the strongest clubs in each of the strongest nations, could pull out and go it alone. If the big 6 from this country went alone, Sky would pull out of the Prem and back any new European league. The clubs would take the money themselves and UEFA would be penniless and powerless. English football would end up like Scottish football after that. There would be a reconciliation and the big six would be even more demanding from a position of wealth. So Platini will ensure that the likes of Man City and Manure will qualify unlike last season when they went out and couldn't give two monkeys about the Europa league.
