Non-champions in the Champions League

If you kept the competition format as it is and restricted it to champions-only you'd still have the problem of having less revenue to distribute, though.

I don't like the idea of a less competitive European Cup, it should be a stage for the best footballers that Europe has to offer. A trickle down of Champions League tv money would never turn uncompetitive nations into competitive ones, it would improve them but only to a certain extent.

Barca's yearly wage bill is in excess of 130 million GBP, the average annual salary of a Real Madrid player is in excess of 4 million GBP, no amount of financial re-jiggling by UEFA is ever going to allow clubs from poorer nations to compete with that.

 

I like the champions league the way it is tbh.

The Europa league is pish compared to the Uefa cup format though.

 

I wouldn't.

Shakhtar Karagandy showed that these so called small nations can pull off a few shocks.

 

But these teams have no money as it is. Even if it is less money than it is now it would still be loads to these teams.

I don't think it will be less competitive. We beat Barça, Shakhter Karagandy beat us, Basel beat Chelsea. It is after all a cup competition, there can and will be upsets.

Well they shouldn't aim to compete with that. There is other ways to take on these teams - such as the Shakhtar Donetsk way. Improve your infrastructure such as the academy and stadium, set up a good scouting network at home and abroad and go from there. That, without the murderous Oligarch.

Maybe your best player will move on, that seems inevitable. I don't think the map of European football will change dramatically but I just think we should give other teams a small chance like we have, without having to find a sugar daddy.

 

It's not a League for the 'Champions' but rather a league of Europe's best to determine it's 'Champion'.

 

But even if they were getting more than they were now the infrastructure doesn't exist for them to attract more talented players. Unless you nuke Western Europe players are always going to drift towards the mega clubs, it's basic economics.

It would be less competitive, it would simply be a European Cup dominated by four clubs. Upsets happen, yes, but the likelihood of all four of the qualifiers from the big countries being eliminated by an underdog in the same season would be extremely remote. If one or two were eliminated it would simply make things easier for those mega clubs remaining, less serious competition.

If Rinat Akhmetov isn't paying for all of the above then who is? A modest increase in Champions League revenue certainly won't cut it, that's for sure.

The only realistic way for a club outside of the European financial elite to compete is with artificial investment, the spoils from a champions-only Champions League aren't going to bridge the gap in any meaningful way.

 

Remove the automatic qualification for all 3rd placed teams from the big counties and give them to the champions of the countries next in line. Have them play qualifiers. By moving teams into a qualification spot this also means that champions who do have to qualify will play less rounds.

 

Shakhter are the exception, not the rule. Even at that we tanned them in the 2nd leg and they're sitting bottom of their Europa League group so they've hardly shook up the world of football.

 

No, it's not. It's the Coupe des Clubs Champions Européens i.e. the Cup of European Champion Clubs. There's no way you can twist that to mean a cup to determine Europe's champion. :smiley-laughing002: That's just daft.

 

WE'RE NOT TALKING ABOUT AZERBAI-*-JANI OR KAZAKH TEAMS!

For *'s sake. How many times does that have to be said?

 

This is the idea.

 

It's about as perfect as it could be. There's no point moaning because we wouldn't feel any sense of pride or achievement if it wasn't difficult for us, and we wouldn't get excited about it if we were playing the Latvian and Finnish champions instead of Barca and AC Milan.

Let's be honest the 3rd best team in England are better, more interesting and more exciting than the best teams from 98% of other European nations.

 

Sure the stand out players will drift slowly Westward but most won't go to the mega clubs straight away. They'll have steping stones - Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Alejandro Domínguez, Maxi López, Jô, Keisuke Honda, Eduardo or the latest incomer in Vitinho to name a few. So far these players have went to the sugar daddy clubs but give them a little something and players will travel.

Anyway, give them more money and you expect them to change in the click of a finger? No, give them a couple of seasons. You think in the short term.

No it wouldn't, it would have plenty of big teams. Say two from England, Spain, Germany and France and then the champions of Portugal, France, Turkey and Ukraine on top of that. So you could end up with - Man Utd, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barça, Juventus, Milan, Bayern, Borussia, Galatasaray, Porto, PSG and Shakhtar Donetsk for example. I don't think I'm stopping the world having their big nights with a list like that.

I think we should have a go and see if that is true. Some clubs will lose CL money which could effect their TV deals.

I was reading that South Africa's Premier Soccer League has the tenth biggest TV deal in the world. It only takes a few moments to create interest in other leagues. Anyway, got to start somewhere.

 

It's called the Uefa champions league.

And the inscription on the trophy can easily be, and is, translated as the 'European Champion Clubs' Cup'.

Awarded to the best in Europe regardless of previous trophies.

 

No, the inscription very clear states that it's the Cup of European Champion Clubs (or the European Champion Clubs' Cup, both mean the same thing). There's no way that you can translate it to mean what you're trying to say it means. Ask a native French speaker on here.

 

It's supposed to be read as the European Champion-Clubs' Cup. Not European-Champion Clubs' Cup.

Don't know if that's where the confusion lies but trust me, the inscription refers only to clubs who have won their domestic league.

 

To me the biggest problem with the Champions League, is that it excludes many teams. Especially from smaller nations. If I had it my way I would scrap the EL, and double the size of the CL, and have only the top 16 teams seeded. From there you would have 16 groups of 4, which would then lead to a last 32. The reason I say this is because UEFA cup used to be almost as important as the CL, but as the CL has gradually been opened up to more teams. Its just makes the EL an irrelevance now.

 

Top top post my man.

 

Everyone talks about how great the current Croatia team would be if it hadn't been broken up into different parties. It's true. The area continues to pump out a high number of quality footballers. Imagine Dinamo Zagreb with the likes of Modric, Badelj, Corluka, Mandzukic, Kranjcar, Kovacic, etc.

There are numerous examples of this through-out Europe. It's always been the way of the more economically strong nations, like Spain and Germany, to attract these talents. But it'd be cool if those nations were given a greater share of Golden Pot from UEFA so they can afford to keep their home-grown talents.

 

You're excluding Azerbaijan? On what basis?



Your champions-only tournament would start to lose credibility pretty quickly if you barred the champions of a top-32 nation from competing.

Players who are willing to forgo better living conditions for the sake of a pay cheque are few and far between. It used to be that only the top players would be on the move but nowadays even teenagers are being picked up by the mega clubs.

No, I'm thinking in the medium to long term. The relatively modest amount of extra revenue garnered from a champions-only European Cup wouldn't be enough to change the fundamental economic conditions that cause players to drift away from poor Eastern European leagues/nations.

Why are runners-up more entitled to a place in the champions league than third or fourth placed teams? They aren't champions, after all...

I've no real issue with your proposed format but it wouldn't exactly change much in the grand scheme of things, there would just be less tv money to distribute to the 6 or so new minnows involved.

How does a club build something like the Donbass Arena without artificial investment, dream it up? Point at a spot in the ground, click their fingers and say 'stadium, appear'?