UEFA Discussing How To Fix Europa League

[McSorleyStick]

Originally Posted by Evilo

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- Porto over Bayern 2-1 Bayern and Real were the best teams as well.

Madjer's backheel

[Johnnywhite]

Originally Posted by les Habs

I like that there are two cups. As for the CL, I think the name should be changed to "The European Cup" since it's no longer just champions participating.

Ironic that...it was the European Cup with just the champions competing, now it's the Champions League with a whole bunch qualified...admittedly mainly as money spinning cannon fodder designed to fail with rigged(seeded) group stages, the old system was so much better. Much harder for the whiny turds to throw their toys out of the pram because they feel they automatically deserve CL football.

[Evilo]

So so true.

Right now if you're a big team, you can lose a game, even two (sometimes three !) and still qualify for the quarter finals.
That's so ****ing ridiculous.

Of course, teams with huge money will most likely make it if they can fail once or twice in the process.

The CL is awful really.
And the Europa League, though spectacular most of the time, is still a spare competition, where teams often line up B squads.

Both european competitions are awful IMO.

[Alklha]

I totally agree that the old format was better, but football is so different now that it makes it unworkable. The current format isn't working that much better, because it is getting very tedious as well.

Sadly, with the money involved now, there is no real way to bring those days back. Regional top Divisions are probably the best way forward for European football, but I don't think that is realistic.

Originally Posted by Ceremony

This article sums up my thoughts: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/.../id/78?cc=5739

While I agree with the sentiment of the article, some of the stuff in it is moronic in the extreme. For example, for all the reasons to be critical of the coefficient system using Manchester City as an example of a team that it punishes is close to the dumbest thing I have read in sports journalism this season.

[les Habs]

I get the call for the champions only to be in the CL. Knockouts can make it interesting too, but I like having "the best of the best" in it. It'd be interesting though to have a CL only and then a Uefa Cup if you will. No CWC and I think the Uefa Cup would be as interesting if not more as you'd have a lot more of the "best" sides.

Originally Posted by Johnnywhite

Ironic that...it was the European Cup with just the champions competing, now it's the Champions League with a whole bunch qualified...admittedly mainly as money spinning cannon fodder designed to fail with rigged(seeded) group stages, the old system was so much better. Much harder for the whiny turds to throw their toys out of the pram because they feel they automatically deserve CL football.

It is, and I never understood it.

[TheMoreYouKnow]

The Champions League was a response to the top clubs openly floating the idea of a breakaway league, it was a UEFA gesture to placate the top teams in face of their growing muscle. This was an environment where breakaway leagues actually happened in Rugby League aided by Rupert Murdoch's Sky money which around this time was also starting to pour into European soccer along with the money from Murdoch's rivals.

The TV money revolution did what it did in every sport that didn't have a "tight" American pro league-style structure, the popular teams saw the commercial potential and understood that the existing structures were not optimal with regards to realizing that potential.

The 80s were a particularly bad stretch for the European Cup, Steaua Bucharest made it to the Final twice on weak draws. In 85/86, they beat Vejle (Denmark), Honved (Hungary), Lahti (Finland) and Anderlecht (Belgium) to make the Final where they beat Barcelona on penalties after defending for 120 minutes. In 1988/89 they beat Sparta Prague (CSSR), Spartak Moscow (USSR), Gothenburg (Sweden), Galatasaray (Turkey) to make the Final where they got soundly beaten. Now that draw wasn't as easy as the 86 one but they still made the Final without having to beat any giants of soccer.

It's not hard to imagine a decision-maker sitting there watching Steaua Bucharest dourly making its way past Anderlecht in a European Cup semifinal thinking "I bet there's 50 million people out there who'd rather watch Bayern vs Real Madrid this week, then Real Madrid against Milan in two weeks"

The Champions League was thus a compromise solution between the UEFA structure responsible for all European associations - because it kept in the likes of Steaua Bucharest, FC Basel and Rosenborg Trondheim as desired by UEFA but still created more revenue possibilities for the big clubs and made it more likely for those teams to meet in the high-profile stages of the competition (QF onwards).

[jekoh]

Originally Posted by les Habs

It is, and I never understood it.

The competition was renamed Champions League several years before non-champions were allowed in, so at least the original rebranding made sense.

[chasespace]

Individual league champions, CL finalists, and Europa finalists qualify for the following year's CL.

Everyone else goes to Europa. Increase the number of groups so you can hopefully keep it at four teams per group or maybe wiggle it enough so you can get away with three teams per group and have the group stage be the opening round of the competition. Winners of each group move on to a single elimination tournament that will be played with each round having a home-and-home series like the current knockout phases.

[Bluebirds Boyo]

Originally Posted by chasespace

Individual league champions, CL finalists, and Europa finalists qualify for the following year's CL.

Problem is, that leaves quite a few mediocre games. As TheMoreYouKnow says, the 80s brought us a quarter-final of Kuusysi vs. Steaua Bucharest, and Uefa is far more diluted today than it was then, with the national membership ballooning to 54 these days.

Under your proposal, this season's Champions League would contain Lusitanos, Tre Penne, B36 Tórshavn, F91 Dudelange, Neftchi Baku, The New Saints, Skënderbeu Korçë, Željezničar, Slovan Liberec, Ludogorets Razgrad, Budućnost Podgorica, Shakhter Karagandy, KR, Sheriff Tiraspol and so on and on, but no Manchester United or Barcelona.

If people wanted to watch Ludogorets Razgrad vs. F91 Dudelange, the competition wouldn't have changed format in the first place. People can say Uefa only want money and not what the fans want, but in this instance at least, the two are one and the same.