Champions League to increase to 36 teams from 2024

"Even floated now is banning CL teams from signing players from each other"

Most ridiculous thing I've read in the last 10 minutes on here.
 
Presumably this means 5 teams from England, Spain and Italy then?
 
Berbaclass said:
:confused:
Click to expand...
Clever edit, you sly devil.

I think the idea was discussed on the Caf before. I dislike it massively - extra group games would be tedious. There's a very good reason why the second group stage was scrapped back then.
 
Siorac said:
Clever edit, you sly devil.

I think the idea was discussed on the Caf before. I dislike it massively - extra group games would be tedious. There's a very good reason why the second group stage was scrapped back then.
Click to expand...
Sorry was too lazy to create the thread on my phone where I saw the tweet :)
 
Do they mean no in-season transfers? If it goes from 6 to 10 rounds, the first 4 rounds are going to be God awful with trips to some bog standard pitch in Eastern Europe.
 
Samid said:
"Even floated now is banning CL teams from signing players from each other"

Most ridiculous thing I've read in the last 10 minutes on here.
Click to expand...
I cant even understand how this works. So no player will ever go from top club to top club ever again?
 
So more absolute fodder games.

Just expand the tournament to 64 teams and make it a two leg straight knockout competition from the beginning.
 
An agreement on the structure of a new-look Champions League could come as early as in the next fortnight, according to Andrea Agnelli, president of Juventus and chairman of the European Club Association (ECA).
The Uefa-proposed expansion of the group stage would see it include 36 teams, up four from the current 32.
Within that, teams would play 10 matches in a 36-team league, instead of the current six, in a so-called ‘Swiss system’. The European Leagues group has expressed concern at the impact of the extra matches, and at the plans to award places based on historic performance rather than in the most recent domestic season.

The ECA’s chairman Andrea Agnelli said: “I would dearly hope that everything would be done within the next couple of weeks.

“There are details that need to be addressed, one being the access to the competitions - if we have four extra spots, how will these be allocated. But I would say within a couple of weeks everything should be pretty much sorted.

“That’s the hope that both (UEFA) president (Aleksander) Ceferin and I have for the competitions post 2024.”
Agnelli said he hoped an agreement would “close” speculation regarding a breakaway European Super League.
He said the proposal was “very close” to his ideal Champions League.
He added: “I think the Swiss system is beautiful. So one thing is a regular season which is much more appealing, and the (retention) of the knockout stage which is the essence of competition.
“It’s very close to an ideal Champions League, so maybe we’re just a couple of weeks away.”
The Premier League is understood to have concerns over the increased number of matches, and also the access changes.

“It’s having balanced competitive landscapes,” he said. “We do think that currently for competitive balance purposes, 20 teams in leagues...there are too many. I think there is an overall element that we could actually work out in the interests of everyone.”

On the issue of changing the way teams can qualify to include teams who missed out via the conventional route but have the best ‘co-efficient’ of past performance, Agnelli said: “Unprecedented events can turn into normality. Some years ago it was unprecedented that not just the champions were allowed in the Champions League, and then it became normality.
“So I wouldn’t be too concerned about unprecedented events which then become normality, if they are approved.
“When it once was a blasphemy to imagine not just the champions in the Champions Cup, now it’s absolutely normal, so I wouldn’t be too concerned about change. Those who know me, know I am a fan of change - if change is necessary I am happy for change to take place.”
Additional reporting by PA.
Click to expand...
 
I'd hope that means more teams from the top leagues.

If it means more places for the weaker leagues then we're just gonna get more teams qualifying early and playing their reserves in the remaining matches.
 
Samid said:
"Even floated now is banning CL teams from signing players from each other"

Most ridiculous thing I've read in the last 10 minutes on here.
Click to expand...

This looks like a not so subtle way of increasing the gap between the bigger and smaller clubs.

Can't sign players from CL standard clubs? Fine. We'll just raid the smaller clubs and steal all their talent instead.

It's high-time we stopped shitting on the smaller clubs like Darlington, Exeter, Spurs, etc. It's not fair.
 
Intuitively I would say that it's good for the dutch, french and portuguese leagues because with CL money the 3rd or 4th teams have less chance to sell good players and will be able to get some squad continuity.
 
What they should do is have todays C.L as division 1 and todays Europa League as division 2 with a more evenly distributed price money. Let's say 6 teams get relegated and 6 teams get promoted
And all teams not qualifying for division 2 will play a separate tournament to qualify for Division 2

For sake of argument that 5 english teams enter C.L 1 - and 3 english teams enter C.L 2. If one English team get relegated, England only get 4 spots for Division 1 and 4 for Division 2 the next season.

That would make Europa League much more exciting to watch
 
charlenefan said:
Presumably this means 5 teams from England, Spain and Italy then?
Click to expand...

The sceptic in me says Its going to mean United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Real, Barca, Juve, both Milans, Bayern are all autopicks regardless of where they finish in the league.
 
Judas said:
Yeah big no thanks. All about money, no one wants more tedious group stage games.
Click to expand...

Somebody linked to Arsene talking about it in the VAR thread, how a big part of the change is to fend off interest in forming a European Super League.

Can't say I think it sounds any good - Euros are worse now - but you're probably right to say that it all comes down to money.

200_d.gif
 
So Arsenal will probably have to wait till 2024 for the CL.
 
Is this as well as the Europa Conference League? That could mean European qualification for any club finishing in the top half of the table!

Reckon that would lead to some very dubious gamesmanship. Basically, if you're not getting top 4 it would almost be worthwhile finishing as far down the table as possible with next season in mind. Bit like Liverpool are doing this season.
 
Why are FIFA and UEFA seemingly determined to ruin their best competitions?
 
Don’t see the point, other than money. The group games are the boring bit we have to sit through to get to the good ties, and having more teams just dilutes it and serves to make it less unique.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.