New champions league format

[rcoobc]

All this talk of only champions getting in is very cute, but tv networks and the people that matter don't want just City in the CL. They'd have the traditional big four plus City in it every year if they could.

United fans talking about "only league champions getting in" makes me laugh.

Guess who was the first Champions League winner to not have won either their league or the European Cup the year before?

 

[stevoc]

Return to the old European Cup format without any seeding would be the best way to go. High stakes from the get go.

You'll never see that format or anything remotely close to it in European competition ever again. Uefa don't want it and the clubs don't want it.

 

[mariachi-19]

They should just call it the “big 4 exemption” and be done with it.

The wild card is there simply so that Barca, Bayern, Real and ourselves will always be guaranteed CL football.

 

[SalfordRed18]

They should just call it the “big 4 exemption” and be done with it.

The wild card is there simply so that Barca, Bayern, Real and ourselves will always be guaranteed CL football.

Is our coefficient good enough to always be guaranteed a place?

 

[R'hllor]

What a joke, it will get worse until whole thing crumbles. First top 4, then change for Serie A and 4th team going directly in group stages, now we have wildcards, i mean God forbid some club misses on CL one year, just make a list of clubs and give them 100% in, why going around it.

If EL was rewarding more money than CL, wouldnt be surprised if some clubs wouldnt mind to be outside top 4. Also the amount of shit less rich clubs getting from fans of so called top clubs, everything is boring and shit for them, wish those clubs would team up, make their own comp and tell elite to feck off, go watch Barca vs your team every 2 weeks and lets see how long it will last until you start saying how thats boring too.

 

[Ludens the Red]

They should just call it the “big 4 exemption” and be done with it.

The wild card is there simply so that Barca, Bayern, Real and ourselves will always be guaranteed CL football.

To be fair to Real, Barca and Bayern. They’ll pretty much never finish outside the top 4 in their country whereas for us it’s a surprise when we finish in the top 4.

 

[Rolandofgilead]

The thing is, with the addition of a side with better European coefficient as a wild card just adds another European place. Then you still have the europa league to fill and the europa conference thing and pretty much everyone in the top 10-12 is getting in to Europe.

Wheres the prestige gone? I know I'm not the only one that misses that feeling of wonder I got as a kid watching the '91 cup winners cup run. Watching teams that were a complete mystery to me, Peski Munkas, montpellier...even Wrexham. My point is, it felt earned being there. These days it's a bloody Also ran trophy.

 

[mariachi-19]

Is our coefficient good enough to always be guaranteed a place?

It’s not bad because they don’t alter between Europa and CL

 

[Chief123]

Is set to be agreed this afternoon.

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I'm not sure what to make of this, more diluting of the game in favour of the bigger clubs.

This is just a clever way of giving the bigger clubs a better chance of going further in the competition.

The more games there are in the group stage means the less likely there is to see a shock team make it to the latter rounds.The big teams will most likely see this as advantageous.

 

[Chief123]

All this talk of only champions getting in is very cute, but tv networks and the people that matter don't want just City in the CL. They'd have the traditional big four plus City in it every year if they could.

I’m not sure Uefa would be too keen on just City being in the champions league from England. With such a small fan base, they are hardly going to drag in the interest.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Awful.

FIFA/UEFA are obsessed with ruining the sport's prestige in these tournaments.

 

[Lay]

Doesn’t it mean the league cup will be defunct? The English fixture list won’t be able to have both

 

[Iron]

my favorite format was phase 2 of groupe stage with 4 groups of death. That was the pinnacle of world football, better then world cup, with each game being awesome. Just being in those 4 groups meant you are top european club. Best way to also stop those who want european super league, because this was the best of both worlds, with top teams playing each other more often. Problem was +6 intense games per season. wish they would do this again and reduce the number of teams in their championship from 20 to 16 max.

 

[adexkola]

I’m not sure Uefa would be too keen on just City being in the champions league from England. With such a small fan base, they are hardly going to drag in the interest.

Replace that with Leicester, or any team bar Liverpool/United. Shouldn't matter.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

All this talk of only champions getting in is very cute, but tv networks and the people that matter don't want just City in the CL. They'd have the traditional big four plus City in it every year if they could.

who are the traditional big 4?

Im afraid this way of thinking is a decade out of date.

of course networks want City in the Champions League. Their manager, their football and quality of players demand it.

the reality is that they are a big draw these days.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Doesn’t it mean the league cup will be defunct? The English fixture list won’t be able to have both

I suppose you could have a League Cup without clubs that qualified for the CL?

would provide a fairer distribution of trophies and give smaller clubs an opportunity to play in Europe? Would stop City winning it every season as a bonus!

 

[Judas]

who are the traditional big 4?

Im afraid this way of thinking is a decade out of date.

of course networks want City in the Champions League. Their manager, their football and quality of players demand it.

the reality is that they are a big draw these days.

Us, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool. With City added in, as I said. Of course City are a big draw, but I'd still say they're not as big as the first four I mentioned, they will be one day though, it's unavoidable unless their owners bugger off. I doubt Spurs (apart from in Korea) bring in much fanfare abroad compared to say Arsenal. It'll take awhile for their star to fade still.

But having said that, I am baffled by just how many City shirts I see when I'm outside England now, so maybe in this technology heavy world, they've caught up to the rest very quickly.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Us, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool. With City added in, as I said. Of course City are a big draw, but I'd still say they're not as big as the first four I mentioned, they will be one day though, it's unavoidable unless their owners bugger off. I doubt Spurs (apart from in Korea) bring in much fanfare abroad compared to say Arsenal. It'll take awhile for their star to fade still.

so traditional, as in the past 20 years...

I bet more neutrals would be more interested in watching City than Arsenal or Chelsea.

 

[UnitedSofa]

the easiest way to make the group stages of the champions league more interesting is to do away with seeding all together.

imagine a group of barca, real, us and city.

it would be awesome

Would be better doing champions qualifying automatically and rest having to qualify and jst luck of draw eg if atletico win Spanish league could have Barcelona v Real Madrid for qualifying same with group stage...... group a -

Barcelona
Chelsea
Man City
Bayern Munich

So 2 teams will be going out and would stop the same teams getting to the latter stages, as it is the now, you can pretty much guarantee who’s getting out the groups.

That would just mean a "lesser" team would get to the final and be easy pickings for a big team who did get through, wouldn't make for a good spectacle at the other end of the tournament though.

 

[U99ted]

The current format ain’t broke. No need to fix it.

 

[Mrs Smoker]

The current format ain’t broke. No need to fix it.

It's terrible! But this ain't a fix.

 

[bosnian_red]

It's a terrible idea. The answer to improve football would be fewer games or shitty cups and ignoring the excuses big clubs make when they flop and miss out on the CL. The more big games you have, the less special they are. The more games a team has in a year, the worse they'll perform as they'll get more and more tired. The worse they perform, the worse the spectacle is. Stop making random European competitions like the UEFA conference league in addition to the CL and EL. They're all ways for them to prioritize European competition and kill off domestic competition which is a terrible idea.

It's inevitable though. If it keeps going this way it'll turn into some weird blend of NFL style of league but across Europe as a European super league, but with a blend of promotion/relegation of some sort into it. Hope not but I think it'll end up happening.

 

[cyberman]

so traditional, as in the past 20 years...

I bet more neutrals would be more interested in watching City than Arsenal or Chelsea.

City matches, news etc doesnt generate much interest online or in real life, weirdly enough.
Look on here, I bet as many Cafe members have watched Dortmund matches as they have Bayerns.

 

[stepic]

The current format ain’t broke. No need to fix it.

it is though. loads of pointless games against terrible clubs. it only gets interesting once the group games are done.

 

[diarm]

So with this wild card idea, if I'm reading it correctly it would be Liverpool and Dortmund who would stand to benefit the most this year if leagues ended as they are right now?

We as United fans need to be very wary of this. We're the 8th ranked side in Europe according to the coefficient - If we can finish 10th and still qualify for the Champions League, there is zero reason for the Glazers to invest in the squad.

 

[manc exile]

That would just mean a "lesser" team would get to the final and be easy pickings for a big team who did get through, wouldn't make for a good spectacle at the other end of the tournament though.

cos a giant killing in the later stages or even the final wouldnt be exciting at all would it

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

So with this wild card idea, if I'm reading it correctly it would be Liverpool and Dortmund who would stand to benefit the most this year if leagues ended as they are right now?

We as United fans need to be very wary of this. We're the 8th ranked side in Europe according to the coefficient - If we can finish 10th and still qualify for the Champions League, there is zero reason for the Glazers to invest in the squad.

that coefficient would keep dropping. I don’t think this is something to unduly worry about.

 

[diarm]

that coefficient would keep dropping. I don’t think this is something to unduly worry about.

I just think it's wrong in general. If we finished 6th and made the Champions League ahead of someone like Leicester or West Ham who finished 5th, it would be a piss take.

 

[Tom8700]

There should be a real European Super Leauge and there is no argument against it. National titles and leauges are absolutely ridicilous and worthless. What`s the point of having teams with 500 million budgets playing against teams with 50 million budgets?
Maybe England is a small exception, but even there the gap between the big and the small teams is ludacris.
I want to see the best players going against the best players. Somehow all the other sports and regions of the world seem to get this concept besides Europe.

 

[Rolandofgilead]

Something else just occurred to me. Do the Europa League winners still qualify under this new proposal?

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

I just think it's wrong in general. If we finished 6th and made the Champions League ahead of someone like Leicester or West Ham who finished 5th, it would be a piss take.

i 100% agree with that. My point was that I don’t see this a reason why the owners wouldn’t invest in the team, by trying to get in the back door every year.

these wild card teams are a shit idea. I expect it’s a concession that’s been made to try and prevent the inevitable ‘super league’ for a few more years.

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

Something else just occurred to me. Do the Europa League winners still qualify under this new proposal?

I would assume so, it’s the only thing that matters in that competition. It was a stroke of genius to add that as in incentive, now teams take it partially seriously.

 

[Ludens the Red]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....ith-single-league-/1p9rixdqxxetm1qdoi6151k907
https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/med...format-for-club-competitions-to-be-introduce/

Lost in all the Super league talk is the go ahead for the CL reform.
Noticed that games will be played on Thursday not Wednesday apparently.

I don’t see how they’re going to find slots for four extra games without clubs withdrawing from domestic cups or international football being reduced during the season.

Think they should have scrapped two legged knockouts to keep the games played to a reasonable level.

 

[kopviolator]

Does this competition still exist?

 

[Green_Red]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www....ith-single-league-/1p9rixdqxxetm1qdoi6151k907
https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/med...format-for-club-competitions-to-be-introduce/

Lost in all the Super league talk is the go ahead for the CL reform.
Noticed that games will be played on Thursday not Wednesday apparently.

I don’t see how they’re going to find slots for four extra games without clubs withdrawing from domestic cups or international football being reduced during the season.

Think they should have scrapped two legged knockouts to keep the games played to a reasonable level.

Yea, there are pros and cons to the new format. I'm not 100% sold on it. Pity its been overshadowed by the super league crap because it deserves some critiquing. Personally, I think they should have left it as it is.

 

[Green_Red]

https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsl...-1000--new-champions-league-format-explained/

I'm confused, the group stages will be replaced by a 36 team single league, but you will only play 10 games, 5 home and 5 away? My maths is pretty good but this is a mensa level math puzzle. How are they going to do the draw for the 10 games?

 

[Ludens the Red]

https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsl...-1000--new-champions-league-format-explained/

I'm confused, the group stages will be replaced by a 36 team single league, but you will only play 10 games, 5 home and 5 away? My maths is pretty good but this is a mensa level math puzzle. How are they going to do the draw for the 10 games?

So they’re gonna do seedlings and then draw the games based on that. On top of keeping you apart from teams from the same nation.
So basically you know how tediously painful the draws were for the group stage. Multiply that by ten...

They shoulda just done six groups of six. I do think the current system has run its course but this is just a convoluted mess.

 

[pratyush_utd]

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Was this the plan all along?

 

[justboy68]

Swiss is actually a pretty good tournament format in its proper form. This implementation is shite though, in fact from the little I've read on it, it's not even proper Swiss. As it seems like fixtures would be predetermined and not done on a round by round basis as results come in. Not to mention all the other shite that helps teams qualify based on historical merit rather than actual performance.

 

[saivet]

Is there still going to be a limit on the number of teams from one country that can be in the CL within the new format?

Looking at the coefficients if the rules applied for next season then if Juve and Liverpool don't make the top 4, they'd still be in the CL. Juve probably will, so more realistically, it would be Liverpool and Chelsea. Arsenal are above Chelsea in the coefficient but if you don't qualify for the EL or Conference League you can't get into the CL via that route.

If there is a 5 team limit, then Dortmund would be next on the list.