New CL Format Thoughts

[bitterblue78]

I really don’t like the new format.

I think any English team will struggle to win the CL in this format (tbh I only give a fuck about city winning it)

Far too many games.
At least in other countries like France they allow the CL clubs to play on a Friday evening to allow them a few more hours rest.

Whereas I remember us being forced to play Chelsea in the cup on a Sunday then Real Madrid on a Tuesday (possibly a Wednesday) under Pellegrini.

Dont think it was madrid. It was dynamo kiev on the tuedays following our cup tie on the sunday. Even chelsea agreed to move it to the friday night but the BBC refused yet shearer was fuming with the team city put out

 

[Micky Blue]

Dont think it was madrid. It was dynamo kiev on the tuedays following our cup tie on the sunday. Even chelsea agreed to move it to the friday night but the BBC refused yet shearer was fuming with the team city put out

Yeah sorry you’re completely right.
Think I was getting confused as I remember Real knocked us out that year.

Chelsea on the 21st, Kyiv on 24th then Liverpool in the carabao cup final on the 28th.

Well we won 2 of the 3.
They completely shafted us though.

 

[blue61]

Yeah sorry you’re completely right.
Think I was getting confused as I remember Real knocked us out that year.

Chelsea on the 21st, Kyiv on 24th then Liverpool in the carabao cup final on the 28th.

Well we won 2 of the 3.
They completely shafted us though.

If I remember correctly we played Atletico Madrid in a CL qtr final away on a Wednesday and then had to play Liverpool at Wembley on the Saturday

Liverpool had played on the Tuesday and rested the whole team. We lost 3-2 after being 3-0 down

Another one we were shafted on

 

[Gorbachev]

Didnt like the new format before the 1st game, still dont like it. How can you have a league stage where teams play random games v other teams, pure luck of the draw. At least the old format, teams qualified from groups on merit with each team in the group playing each other.

It's still a fair league stage.

You get allocated 4 home and 4 away ties from 4 different seeded pots based of club coefficient ranking.

It couldn't be any fairer.

The old system was as much luck of the draw as this one because there was numerous times where there was only one real group of death and the rest of the groups you could pretty much predict who was going to come first and second.

The big positive with this league stage is that fact you only play each seeded team once and the lack of drop down to the Europa. This has created a fair seeded FA Cup style knockout system to the competition which has really given an impetus to some of the lesser teams.

When you look at the final standings of the league phase, you don't look at that table and think why is that team so high, or so low. They all finished pretty much where their overall performances justified them to be.

 

[Alfie Budd]

Dont think it was madrid. It was dynamo kiev on the tuedays following our cup tie on the sunday. Even chelsea agreed to move it to the friday night but the BBC refused yet shearer was fuming with the team city put out

The game in Kiev was on Wednesday after we'd played all the kids at Chelsea in the cup tie on Sunday.
Because of all the complaints at the time and Pellegrini being furious about the situation, lots of blues seem to have had tricks played on their memories and are convinced the CL game was on the Tuesday but it was definitely on Wednesday.

 

[Blueboy73]

Dont think it was madrid. It was dynamo kiev on the tuedays following our cup tie on the sunday. Even chelsea agreed to move it to the friday night but the BBC refused yet shearer was fuming with the team city put out

The same Shearer who criticised City for putting out a weakened team claiming it wasn't an issue playing every few days yet turned his back in his country age 30 to claiming it was to prolong his own playing career.
Two faced sanctimonious twat failed miserably as a manager and sits there giving his "opinion" at the licence fee payers expense telling us where the best coaches in the business are going wrong.

 

[East Level 2]

The same Shearer who criticised City for putting out a weakened team claiming it wasn't an issue playing every few days yet turned his back in his country age 30 to claiming it was to prolong his own playing career.
Two faced sanctimonious twat failed miserably as a manager and sits there giving his "opinion" at the licence fee payers expense telling us where the best coaches in the business are going wrong.

So Shearer is the BBC version of Gary the Goat-feeder?

 

[Blueboy73]

So Shearer is the BBC version of Gary the Goat-feeder?

Basically yes.

 

[.db.]

If I remember correctly we played Atletico Madrid in a CL qtr final away on a Wednesday and then had to play Liverpool at Wembley on the Saturday

Liverpool had played on the Tuesday and rested the whole team. We lost 3-2 after being 3-0 down

Another one we were shafted on

There’s nowt wrong with playing Wednesday-Saturday

 

[.db.]

Didnt like the new format before the 1st game, still dont like it. How can you have a league stage where teams play random games v other teams, pure luck of the draw. At least the old format, teams qualified from groups on merit with each team in the group playing each other.

I feel like the CL has been ruined.

As Ílkay Gündoğan said back when they were inventing this strange and uneven mess back in 2021:

‘The UCL format right now works great and that is why it's the most popular club competition in the world - for us players and for the fans’.

Ilkay Gundogan issues UEFA demand over new Champions League format

The Manchester City midfielder has taken to social media to express his disapproval over the proposed reforms to the competition

www.mirror.co.uk

Players liked the old format, there were a lot of games but a manageable amount of games. Plus it worked well around an even split in the season either side of Christmas. It built into the latter stages well, like a steady increase in intensity. Preparation and training for it would be steady through the season, which is fair on the players, and fairly manageable to afford for the fans.

Now it’s just a joke for players and fans, as there are too many games to play in and to afford to attend; plus it’s a joke from one team to another with some Pot 3 teams having easier sets of fixtures than teams who were in Pot 1.

Never seen City’s away end at the Bernabeu ⅓ empty, but playing in an unneeded and underserved (for us) round that I coined the ‘Gutter Round’ was less appealing than Carlisle away in the Third Round of the EFL Cup would be.

Expanding the CL has left the Europa League and Conference as the scrapings at the bottom of the barrel of European football, far cries from the standard that the old European Cup Winners’ Cup and UEFA Cup used to be (where at least you were guaranteed top sides who’d be in the mix for the title in their leagues). They now have absolutely no prestige at all, they’re not worth being in.
‘Oh we won the Europa League final against some midtable team from somewhere’.

Like everything in football since Covid; owners, boardrooms and governing bodies are greedy cunts and only care about money. They don’t care about the players and they don’t care about the fans.

 

[blue61]

There’s nowt wrong with playing Wednesday-Saturday

It is when one is playing Atletico away in a brutal game then having to play a refreshed Liverpool team at Wembley less than 72 hours later

 

[Jason]

Dont think it was madrid. It was dynamo kiev on the tuedays following our cup tie on the sunday. Even chelsea agreed to move it to the friday night but the BBC refused yet shearer was fuming with the team city put out

Not how I remember it .The way I remember it was Chelsea didn't agree to moving it and didn't even want it moved to Saturday because they'd played in Europe the previous week on the Tuesday.

 

[Cobwebcat]

I think it’s been a winner..some of the best games I’ve seen in years.

 

[geoff hammond]

The group stage is still just an advertising money spinner. The knockout stage is the greatest sporting competition in the world

 

[MCFC1993]

I think it’s been a winner..some of the best games I’ve seen in years.

The knockouts is no different though, that's where all of the best football has always been.

The long drawn out group was pretty drab imo.

 

[arcademik70]

I hate all competitions that aren't designed to be fair, the new format isn't fair. It hasn't offered any more good games than before but fleeces more cash.

What makes a good competition is when teams are evenly matched and this year standards have dropped significantly so there's not much between teams.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

The group stage is still just an advertising money spinner. The knockout stage is the greatest sporting competition in the world

Some of the knockout games have been brilliant.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

I hate all competitions that aren't designed to be fair, the new format isn't fair. It hasn't offered any more good games than before but fleeces more cash.

What makes a good competition is when teams are evenly matched and this year standards have dropped significantly so there's not much between teams.

doesn’t that make them more evenly matched then?

 

[Scaring Europe to Death]

This season was hard to judge, essentially because we were awful, and were then paired with Real Madrid (who had also been awful) and proceeded to shoot ourselves in the foot.

However, what nobody saw coming was how the new Format (with nobody dropping into the EL at the end of the Group Stage) has seriously weakened UEFA's secondary European Tournament.

No more City thrashing Seville 4-0 and then eleven months later playing them in the Super Cup Final.

It will probably result in six English clubs playing in the CL next season, but perhaps that was always the intention

 

[arcademik70]

doesn’t that make them more evenly matched then?

Just think teams are evenly matched because quality has dropped. Nothing to do with the competition. The new format is just a money grab