puskas Posted August 26, 2011 Share Posted August 26, 2011 If I was running the Champions League there wouldnt be fourth place English teams part of it. I thought this was supposed to be CHAMPIONS' League and then you see the fourth place team winning the entire tournament. Looks lame. I would only allow the championship team across Europe joining it. Obviously I would give teams like the English, German, Spain, Italy etc leagues byes for the first few rounds rather than have them beat up the champions of Iceland. Also, the Europa Cup would only be for cup winners such as the FA cup champions and yes they could face the winner of Champions League in a few months. Also I wouldnt allow the rich leagues to buy players from all over because it doesnt help the game. 30 years ago leagues like the Hungarian league were thriving because it could be marketed as the best players from the country playing in that league. Now those good players are just bought at 18 by rich clubs from the West and then disappear in some Liverpool reserve team. So who will watch a league with a bunch of second rate Hungarian players and other reject Eastern European players. It is also not good for the richer leagues because England and others have a much harder time developing their own players because their league is taken over by foreign players. I know this will never happen again because of the short term $$$$$$$ to be made by Fifa but it would be more fair and more about the sport (even if it is not about profit). Would you guys be in agreement with this and whatelse would you change in club or international soccer if you were running FIFA? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amacpher Posted August 29, 2011 Share Posted August 29, 2011 I wouldn't change the Champions League. I don't see what the big problem is with allowing 2nd, 3rd and 4th place teams into the competition. The same concept is done for World Cup qualification and nobody second-guesses that. It's the best way to stage a tournament containing all the top teams in the continent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alberta white Posted August 29, 2011 Share Posted August 29, 2011 Puskas, What you descibe is effectivley the old European Cup. biut I reckon you knew that anyway. Personally I think it was a more entertaining competition. Even back in the UK I only watched the UCL, Group matches if Leeds or Liverpool were playing. Other than that I'd wait for the Final 16 knockpout matches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amacpher Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Puskas, What you descibe is effectivley the old European Cup. biut I reckon you knew that anyway. Personally I think it was a more entertaining competition. Even back in the UK I only watched the UCL, Group matches if Leeds or Liverpool were playing. Other than that I'd wait for the Final 16 knockpout matches. But I think the format needed to evolve to take into account that the 3rd and 4th best teams in some leagues are now superior to the champions of many other leagues. That's why I don't have a problem with the CL format. The old "champions-only" format would suck in today's Europe because the gap between the champions of the top leagues and, say, the 8th-best league has widened considerably. IOW, reverting to the old format wouldn't bring back the old drama. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alberta white Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 But I think the format needed to evolve to take into account that the 3rd and 4th best teams in some leagues are now superior to the champions of many other leagues. That's why I don't have a problem with the CL format. The old "champions-only" format would suck in today's Europe because the gap between the champions of the top leagues and, say, the 8th-best league has widened considerably. IOW, reverting to the old format wouldn't bring back the old drama. So perhaps a play off style competion might work? one where the Lesser Champions play off against the stronger league runner ups. Or pehaps that is the intention of the Pregroup playoffs? If thats the case then we could avoid the Groups altogether. but that defeats the point of the moneymens resandetra I suppose? I just find the group thing dull and unnecessary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted August 31, 2011 Share Posted August 31, 2011 I wouldn't change the Champions League. I don't see what the big problem is with allowing 2nd, 3rd and 4th place teams into the competition. The same concept is done for World Cup qualification and nobody second-guesses that. It's the best way to stage a tournament containing all the top teams in the continent. Agreed. Those who complain about the Champions league including clubs other than only the champions, are the smaller leagues or mid sized leagues. And that is purely about self interest on their part and not about fans, and the integrity and entertainment value of the competition. When the Champions league excluded 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place clubs, the champions of say, Scotland or Holland, stood a better chance because they didn't have to play the 2-4th place clubs from the big 4-5 leagues who were stronger than them. but as fans, we want to see the best sides in in the continent play in the champions league. So if Rangers, Celtic, Benfica, Feyernord etc struggle against the likes of AC Milan, Tottenham, and real madrid, thats their problem. To me, CL is about the best teams and and if the fourth place side in EPL is better than the champion in most countries then tough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amacpher Posted September 1, 2011 Share Posted September 1, 2011 So perhaps a play off style competion might work? one where the Lesser Champions play off against the stronger league runner ups. Or pehaps that is the intention of the Pregroup playoffs? If thats the case then we could avoid the Groups altogether. but that defeats the point of the moneymens resandetra I suppose? I just find the group thing dull and unnecessary One option to make the CL more competitive would be to have a knockout round of 32 teams, and then have the group-stage when the field is down to 16. That would make the group-stage more competitive. Then you could also have the 16 losers join the Europa League in September, which seems less 'mickey-mouse' then the existing format where they join the EL in February. I guess this would raise some financial issues though. For the big clubs, the current format which virtually guarantees 8 matches is a lot safer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadianSoccerFan Posted September 2, 2011 Share Posted September 2, 2011 If you think the Champions League group stage is dull then I don't know how you can stomach the uncompetitiveness of most domestic leagues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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