Round of 16 (Champions League); should the rules change?

[led_scholes]

The current rules forbid teams from the the same association to play against each other in this stage. However, we have seen many times that teams from the same league can dominate the Champions league. And since each big country has so many representatives, why UEFA still has this rule? I understand that the concept of the CL is that teams from different leagues play each other, but eventually many times you end up with 3 Spanish or English teams in the semi-finals.


Apologies if this has already been discussed.

 

[Pexbo]

I agree. It’s a daft rule, it makes no odds competitively whether teams of the same nation face each other in the early or late knockouts. In fact it’s less interesting when it’s the later knockouts.

 

[Boavista]

Yeah I'd be in favour of getting rid of that rule. Maybe I haven't though about it enough, but I believe it really only benefits the strong leagues and they already have other advantages anyway. This year for instance, Porto could face any tough group winner while Sevilla can avoid Real Madrid. I guess it's not always clear who benefits, for example Juventus couldn't play relatively weaker Lazio (or Atalanta), but it just creates these uneven odds that go against the spirit of equal competition.

Plus, if this trend of wealth accumulation in the top leagues continues, especially the PL, we'll end up with the same matches all the time, and that's already the case to some extent. No need to have a rule in place that makes this even more likely.

 

[MileStolar]

Plus, if this trend of wealth accumulation in the top leagues continues, especially the PL, we'll end up with the same matches all the time, and that's already the case to some extent. No need to have a rule in place that makes this even more likely.

This thread is spot on, and quoted part is very true "The mountain you climb every day, ain't no mounting to climb"

If you're gonna win UCL against EPL opponents every year it's not an UCL any more it's the FA cup

 

[roonster09]

I agree. Round of 16 should be open draw.

 

[matys]

Yeah, it's a stupid rule, but there's no way that in current climate UEFA would change something that could work against top clubs.