What Is The True Status Of The Champions League?

J J

jrb

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Let’s strip it down. I’ll try, but...... :-/

To enter the CL a club has to finish in a top 4 position in their domestic League.
Or win the CL the year before.
Or win the Europa League the year before.
If necessary clubs have to go into the group play off stages. If clubs get through those group play off stages they are in the CL group stages proper. There are 4 teams in each CL group. After the group stages there are 3 knockout stages. Then it’s the final.

Clubs don’t have to win their league to be in the CL. They can finish 4th.
Liverpool finished 4th last season, and Spurs finished 3rd last season. Both are in this years final.

The Europa League entrance back door.
The team that wins the Europa League get’s a place in next season's CL.
To win the Europa league a team has to finish 5th, 6th, or 7th in their domestic league. Or they can finish 3rd in their CL group stage, drop out of the CL, and then go straight into the Europa League, and get a chance of winning the Europa League, qualifying them for next season’s CL.(are you still with me?)

Let’s take Arsenal for example.

They finished 6th last season in the PL, and in doing so won a place in this season’s Europa League. They have just finished 5th this season in the PL. If they beat Chelsea in the Europa League final, they will be in next season’s CL. And they could possibly win next season’s CL. OK, that would need a miracle, but it could happen. Think about that!

Then you have to factor in CL draw pots. Pot1, pot 2, etc. Where clubs are put in those pots via winning the their domestic leagues(pot1), or via the UEFA coefficient points they have accumulated. Clubs from the same league’s aren’t allowed to play each other until the last 8 of the CL. TV scheduling also means teams from the same countries can’t meet in the CL as they have to be on TV on different nights. UEFA, if necessary will also allot CL teams to certain group stage pots.

I think that’s it?

So taking all the above into consideration, and probably more that I might have missed out or got wrong, in footballing terms, what is the true status of the CL?(compared to the old European Cup and that format) And is the CL now just about money and exposure, rather than the importance of actually winning the CL or is it all one package?
 
Any competition where the winners can lose a third of their games and reach the final means a lot of credibility is lost. Potentially you could lose 6 of the 13 games and still win it.
The old European cup was much harder to win. No group stages and it was much harder to get in than the CL. That said it could be argued that there are more decent teams around Europe nowadays than there used to be.
 
jrb said:
Let’s strip it down. I’ll try, but...... :-/

To enter the CL a club has to finish in a top 4 position in their domestic League.
Or win the CL the year before.
Or win the Europa League the year before.
If necessary clubs have to go into the group play off stages. If clubs get through those group play off stages they are in the CL group stages proper. There are 4 teams in each CL group. After the group stages there are 3 knockout stages. Then it’s the final.

Clubs don’t have to win their league to be in the CL. They can finish 4th.
Liverpool finished 4th last season, and Spurs finished 3rd last season. Both are in this years final.

The Europa League entrance back door.
The team that wins the Europa League get’s a place in next season's CL.
To win the Europa league a team has to finish 5th, 6th, or 7th in their domestic league. Or they can finish 3rd in their CL group stage, drop out of the CL, and then go straight into the Europa League, and get a chance of winning the Europa League, qualifying them for next season’s CL.(are you still with me?)

Let’s take Arsenal for example.

They finished 6th last season in the PL, and in doing so won a place in this season’s Europa League. They have just finished 5th this season in the PL. If they beat Chelsea in the Europa League final, they will be in next season’s CL. And they could possibly win next season’s CL. OK, that would need a miracle, but it could happen. Think about that!

Then you have to factor in CL draw pots. Pot1, pot 2, etc. Where clubs are put in those pots via winning the their domestic leagues(pot1), or via the UEFA coefficient points they have accumulated. Clubs from the same league’s aren’t allowed to play each other until the last 8 of the CL. TV scheduling also means teams from the same countries can’t meet in the CL as they have to be on TV on different nights. UEFA, if necessary will also allot CL teams to certain group stage pots.

I think that’s it?

So taking all the above into consideration, and probably more that I might have missed out or got wrong, in footballing terms, what is the true status of the CL?(compared to the old European Cup and that format) And is the CL now just about money and exposure, rather than the importance of actually winning the CL or is it all one package?
Click to expand...
You could potentially win it by winning just 3 games and drawing the rest, due to away goals.
 
Champions league my arse. The two in this years final haven’t won a domestic title for a combined total of 80 odd years. It must really stick in UEFAs gut that 4 Premier league side get to thrash out their showpiece finals despite the CL and Europa leagues set up to heavily favour every league other than the Prem.

Get it back to a straight knockout out with league also rans in the early rounds, then bring in the top dogs later, similar to how the FA Cup works.
 
Djibrilshairdo said:
Champions league my arse. The two in this years final haven’t won a domestic title for a combined total of 80 odd years. It must really stick in UEFAs gut that 4 Premier league side get to thrash out their showpiece finals despite the CL and Europa leagues set up to heavily favour every league other than the Prem.

Get it back to a straight knockout out with league also rans in the early rounds, then bring in the top dogs later, similar to how the FA Cup works.
Click to expand...

This would risk not being able to show Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in at least 7 Champions league ties per season. What if one got knocked out in the first round they entered. It wont ever happen lots of money to be lost with your silly idea old chap.
 
trumpton said:
Any competition where the winners can lose a third of their games and reach the final means a lot of credibility is lost. Potentially you could lose 6 of the 13 games and still win it.
The old European cup was much harder to win. No group stages and it was much harder to get in than the CL. That said it could be argued that there are more decent teams around Europe nowadays than there used to be.
Click to expand...

Errr, harder to get in but once in much much easier to win.

Liverpool 1977: Crusaders, Trabzonspor, St Etienne, FC Zurich, Borussia Munchengladbach - hardly Europe's elite!

And if you think that was a one-off:

Liverpool 1978: Bye, Dynamo Dresden, Benfica, Borussia Munchengladbach, Bruges - a bit harder but not much

Not just to pick on the scousers:

Nottingham Forest 1979: Liverpool, AEK Athens, Grasshopper Zurich, FC Koln, Malmo - tough first round but not much after
Nottingham Forest 1980: Oster, Arges Pitesti, Dynamo Berlin, Ajax, Hamburg

Need I go on?

Under the same format, with half decent draws, it's reasonably likely that we would have got to a final or two and maybe even won it over the last 7 years.
 
AndyTheCatalystMorrison said:
Errr, harder to get in but once in much much easier to win.

Liverpool 1977: Crusaders, Trabzonspor, St Etienne, FC Zurich, Borussia Munchengladbach - hardly Europe's elite!

And if you think that was a one-off:

Liverpool 1978: Bye, Dynamo Dresden, Benfica, Borussia Munchengladbach, Bruges - a bit harder but not much

Not just to pick on the scousers:

Nottingham Forest 1979: Liverpool, AEK Athens, Grasshopper Zurich, FC Koln, Malmo - tough first round but not much after
Nottingham Forest 1980: Oster, Arges Pitesti, Dynamo Berlin, Ajax, Hamburg

Need I go on?

Under the same format, with half decent draws, it's reasonably likely that we would have got to a final or two and maybe even won it over the last 7 years.
Click to expand...

You're dismissing some very good teams there.

Eastern European teams like Dynamo Dresden and Dynamo Berlin were state funded and their best players weren't allowed to leave.

Borussia Mönchengladbach were one of 'Europe's elite' at the time. They also had Allan Simonsen, the European Footballer of the Year in their team when they played Liverpool in '77.

Hamburg had Keegan who was the current European Footballer of the Year when they played Forest in '80.

St Etienne had Platini and Rocheteau.

If the European Cup was easier to win, why didn't the bigger teams win it every year like they do most years in the Champions League?
 
Spurs, preferably, or the Coach Wreckers will win the CL. But neither of them is the best team in England. I think that tells us all we need to know about the CL. Oh, and it's the jewel in the crown of that money -grabbing bunch of City bashers, Uefa! A further point, now that all four finalists' fans are moaning about ticket prices, ticket allocation, travelling distances and Uefa generally, perhaps they might understand a little more why we don't sing our bollocks off when the anthem rings out!!
 
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