The Champions League we want to see….

[Chucky McChuckface]

So, it’s easy for us all to critique, we’re all very good at that, but what ideas can we come up with for a realistic Champions League format then?

I’m sure we would all love for something along the lines of a straight knockout, off the bat, home and away and then you’re out or something like that, but I think we all know that will never happen.

So what do we want? What would we accept as fans?

Persoanlly, I wouldn’t be overly against the idea of say, two leagues of 10, (CL1 & CL2), the top 4 of CL 1 have the traditonal 2 legged semi’s and one of final, 3 up -down between the 2 “mini-leagues”, bottom 4 “relegated” with 4 the semi-finalists of a Europa League style competition being “promoted”.

Plenty of games to keep the money men happy, shouldn’t be too many “dead-rubbers” as pretty much every game will mean something, and opportunities for ALL clubs to claw thier way in.

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[Brian blue]

Chuky. it would be more palatable to me if it did what it says on the tin. CHAMPIONS league. smaller competion but genuine Champions

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[nine nine nine]

Good proposal Chucky although I would go with more than 10 in both Leagues.

The problem with making it just Champions Brian is that you get too many poor teams in the Competition like the likes of Ludogarets the quality of the CL needs to be improved and the new UEFA proposals won’t do that.

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[Chucky McChuckface]

Double B, not disagreeing with you, cyber chum, but we both know there’s more chance of getting a sensible post from Buffy than there is of getting a “Champions Only” version of the Champions League… 🙂

Puppy, however, I’m going to disagree with that, my “format” already gives the top 20 teams 18 games already, plus a few more for the final 4… if anything I’d say too many games as it is, any more would just be getting stupid and most likely create dead rubbers… unless, of course, if was 5 up/5 down instead of 3 or something.

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[Nike19]

I’d like first of all Terrestrial Channels to have some form of accessibility; even Highlights. Some households can’t afford both BT Sport and Sky – too much!

The competition I have found in recent years is dragging and boredom. The teams occupying it, e.g. FC Midtjylland. I just don’t excited about that.

Only the knock out stages from the Quarters for me is more appealing.

I don’t personally have the mechanics to throw in, but maybe something similar to the world cup format; straight knockouts and get rid of 2 legs after the group stages. Even with that, you avoid playing a team twice, so there’s no away goal rule etc.

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[nine nine nine]

I think accessibility is a very valid point Nil but BT spend an awful lot of money on the CL and the EL and it’s a subscription channel and they need the subscriptions to cover their costs,going back ITV bought the highlights package which meant that those who can’t afford BT would at least see something but they didn’t want the highlights package at the cost it was so that too dropped into BT as well.

Fair points Chucky although I’m not sure how much interest you would get from the TV companies for CL 2 as Nil says we’ve got to get away from games like FC Midtjyland which was the point Perez was making too.

Had the ESL proposal been from UEFA with relegation and promotion and maybe 16 teams rather than 20 with all the teams confirmed to stay in their domestic Leagues too with some of the money drifting down into the domestic Leagues I wonder what reception it would have got then?

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[Chucky McChuckface]

Puppy, give my system a season or two and I reckon you would end up something very close to the current clubs ranked 11-20 on the current co-efficient ratings, and right now that would consist of Goonies, your mob, Dortmund, my mob, Porto, Roma, Ajax, Shakter, Marsille and Napoli… and I reckon with 4 of those being “relegated” and three being promoted to CL1, that would be quite exciting even for the neutral, let along the fans of those 10 clubs who I would think all have a pretty decent following.

And then add into the mix that 3 from the current “Top 10” would drop down into it every year having been relegated from CL1, I really don’t think it would be that hard a sell for the TV Brigade.

I very much doubt, unfortunately, the likes of FC Midtjyland would appear very often at all, and if they did will most likely get “relegated” again anyway.

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[Chucky McChuckface]

And I also think there would be a bit of a benefit to all the national leagues too… with 18 games relatively tough oppositions in midweek in Europe during the season, the “big-dogs” are really going to have to think carefully about who they play/rest at the weekends and in the Prem in particular, that’s really only going to increase the “upsets” which, as we all know, is why the Prem is the best/toughest league in the world.

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[Chucky McChuckface]

I’m really selling myself on this idea… who’s got that UEFA blokes email address? 🙂

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[nine nine nine]

Not my mob thanks Chucky I’m hoping we’ve got bigger things to come.😊😊😊

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[Chucky McChuckface]

Just picking those that were 11-20 on UEFA’s wankings, send them your letter of complaint! 🙂

My overall point being, I think I covered the “enuff” games angle, created a system that provides the least amount of “dead-rubbers”, and just gives every team in Europe a chance of mixing it with the big-dogs. Anybody can qualify, and as well as the semi’s and finals, we get to see 3 “CL1” teams suffer the indignation of being relegated to play CL2 with the “medium” clubs like Chelsea… 🙂

Not the perfect solution but I reckon it could be the “least worst”…

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[Brian blue]

Nine…but the same anology can be made of the current set up…plenty of them with no chance of getting past the first game!!!!!

Chuky.. I can see you point, maybe is me thinking of the “Trade descripion act” when the non Champions out number the “Champions”. Ha-ha

We all know change is needed, just hope we can find some sensible people to do it

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[nine nine nine]

Let’s set up a Champions League for all the teams who have won the CL. None of this one to ten stuff and 11 to 20.😊

The ESL will almost certainly come again and providing it’s under the UEFA banner there’s promotion and relegation it’s purely a midweek League that doesn’t conflict with the domestic Leagues and it’s presented properly it’s not a break away it will almost certainly eventually happen imo.

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[Chucky McChuckface]

And what about all the teams that bought one? 🙂

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[mancunian_mike]

Here’s a thought: What if you styled it like the FA Cup, the greatest and fairest football competition in the world. How would that work I here you ask…well…here goes…Currently 32 teams enter the CL, and 40 teams enter the Europa League (that’s 72 total). UEFA are planning to expand this to roughly 80 total in 2024. UEFA throw £1.7 billion in prize money at the 32 in the CL, and £0.4 billion at the Europa League currently. Winners of the CL can earn about £90M in a season. Maximum amount of games to win the CL is 13 and it’s the same for the Europa League – you currently play more if you have to play qualifiers in the summer, but nobody watches them and nobody wants them. Both current tournaments have ‘dead rubber games’ at the end of the group stages where teams who have already qualified field weakened sides against teams who still need points (creating issues of sporting integrity); both tournaments have unexciting groups due to keeping same country teams and seeded teams apart, resulting in very predictable knock-out stage games (replace Chelsea with Barca, or City with Bayern and it’s the same 6 or 7 teams at the end this year as every other year) and all it does is make the rich teams richer because they are guaranteed lots of games and income (sound familiar – ESL anyone) – what if we put all teams into 1 single European Cup – it could be expanded to 128 teams (here me out), meaning (and this may come as a shock) all 55 UEFA countries get 1 spot for their Champions (that’s 55), the 5 highest leagues on the UEFA coefficients then get 5 more places (that’s 80), the next 5 leagues get 4 more places (that’s 100), then next 5 leagues get 4 places, and so on. All games played over 2 legs (to appease the big clubs). With 128 teams it would take 13 games to win it (6 rounds of 2 leg ties plus a final). Prize money would be a combined £2.1 billion, not a single dead rubber game, massively improved distribution of cash to more teams rather than it all going to ‘the dirty dozen’. All teams are thrown into a hat, no seeding, no separation of countries; if Barca get Real Madrid in round one, tough, one of you is going out, but it’d be a hell of 1st round draw and I would watch it. There would obviously be mauling’s in round one and possibly round 2 but far more clubs across Europe would have a chance to play the best teams – yes you may get FC Midtylland v Bayern in round one, but you’d also have a far better chance of Wolves v Barca or Hibernian v PSG which would be a dream for fans of Wolves and Hibs (no offence meant Wolves or Hibs fans) who may never get to play these teams in the current ‘closed-shop’ set-up. There would also be a far better chance of the luck of the draw getting rid of the ‘same old teams’ year in year out at least giving us a chance of a cup upset…any takers?

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[Pagan]

All great ideas, but they all are based on the idea of devaluing the domestic cups as there will be too many games to play, the result being all but the top 4-6 clubs lose money keeping them in their place, disgusting abuse of power…..Pagan

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[nine nine nine]

Something like the ESL will eventually happen and the PL Clubs in the ESL would either have to pull out of the League Cup or field an U23 team. FA Cup games are primarily at the weekend so they would be unaffected.

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[Pagan]

9, the FA Cup has already been greatly affected by European football, no replays, a lower league club getting a replay could keep them in business, but no, the big 6 play too much footy (that pays better) ding ding, we’re on the bus f**k you….Pagan

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[mancunian_mike]

Nine, if you take a look at UEFA’s proposals for the revamped Champions League it pretty much is the ESL, all the big clubs protected, seeded, qualification for ‘historic performance’ and virtually no chance of finishing in the lower half of a single league of 36 teams where you play 10 games against the unseeded ones; how many dead rubber games in that? Absolutely awful proposals from UEFA. If you think the CL is bad now just wait.

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[nine nine nine]

Agree with every word of that Mike.

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