Champions League Draw - 29th August '24 | Opponents (pg69) | Fixtures (pg128)

Not sure if posted already, but give this watch

Are we at the point yet where, "you can't fool all of the people all of the time".
What a load of nonsense that is. Easier just to say we want to screw every dedicated club supporter with a competition that is a cash cow till the main players get to the knockout stage. One reason why I will be sacking off the Champions or non Champions League this season.
 
To strengthen the synergy between the league and knockout phases, and to provide more sporting incentive during the league phase, the pairings of the knockout phase will also be partly determined by the league phase rankings, with a draw which likewise determines and lays out the route for teams to reach the final.

Partly determined? What’s the other criteria?

This format is growing on me other than the extra games. Every game matters. Playing for a draw is a waste of time. If you don’t want even more games you must finish top 8 and, in theory, one gets the easiest route to the final. Knockout phase is just like the Copa Libatadores.

No playing the Academy in this format! Not that Pep would.
Partly determined? What’s the other criteria?

It is a catch-all in case something happens during the year. Like a war breaking out and they dont want two teams meeting. Highly unlikely to be used - but stranger things have happened.
 
With the new CL format and the new FIFA World Club every 4 years, how long before the PL is forced to copy most other countries and reduce the league to 18 and ditch the League Cup? English teams were at a disadvantage before but now it looks a bigger problem for them.

Would think the Caraboa Cup would go first. Is suffering from a thousand cuts already. I only realised the draw had been made for the third round late Thursday morning, And off-hand, cant remember who we are playing except i know it is at home.
 
Morning all.
Does the new format prevent us playing teams from England in the last 16 still?
I know under the old format is was only permitted from last 8 onwards
 
I was just looking at Aston Villa's fixtures and wondering why they weren't playing anyone that actually won their leagues. So I checked out the pots, and noticed they've quietly got rid of the rule that if you win one of the top leagues, you're automatically in pot 1.

Pot 1 included us, Real Madrid, Inter and PSG, who actually won their leagues. Meanwhile, 3 German teams are in pot 1, none of which won the title, while Leverkusen at in pot 2. Liverpool are somehow in pot 1 for finishing 3rd, when they weren't even in the competition last season, and Barcelona complete the top seeds after winning absolutely fuck all last season. Meanwhile, the German champions and Europa League winners are in pot 2, and the Portuguese champions (Sporting) are in pot 3 behind a team that finished 10 points behind them (Benfica). So only 4 of the 'top-ranked' teams actually won anything last season.

If there was any doubt this whole thing was about favouring established teams, it's basically a return to the bullshit seeding system of the past, where big clubs from the big leagues will be given an easy ride regardless of their actual performance on the pitch.
The idea is that the pots are determined by club coefficients over five years. It works on the principle that a team doing well in European competitions over a five year period is more worthy of a pot one place than a flash in the pan team such as Leicester in 2016.
However, teams now play two from each pot so the advantage of being in pot 1 is minimal.
 
I was just looking at Aston Villa's fixtures and wondering why they weren't playing anyone that actually won their leagues. So I checked out the pots, and noticed they've quietly got rid of the rule that if you win one of the top leagues, you're automatically in pot 1.

Pot 1 included us, Real Madrid, Inter and PSG, who actually won their leagues. Meanwhile, 3 German teams are in pot 1, none of which won the title, while Leverkusen at in pot 2. Liverpool are somehow in pot 1 for finishing 3rd, when they weren't even in the competition last season, and Barcelona complete the top seeds after winning absolutely fuck all last season. Meanwhile, the German champions and Europa League winners are in pot 2, and the Portuguese champions (Sporting) are in pot 3 behind a team that finished 10 points behind them (Benfica). So only 4 of the 'top-ranked' teams actually won anything last season.

If there was any doubt this whole thing was about favouring established teams, it's basically a return to the bullshit seeding system of the past, where big clubs from the big leagues will be given an easy ride regardless of their actual performance on the pitch.

Doesn’t really matter anymore since every club plays 2 teams from each pot.

The old advantage of being in pot 1 (champions pot) was that they wouldn’t have to play anyone from that pot.
 
Morning all.
Does the new format prevent us playing teams from England in the last 16 still?
I know under the old format is was only permitted from last 8 onwards
It looks like that stipulation has gone.
The only stipulations were in the league phase you cant play someone from the same country and no more than two from a particular country.
 
You can only say it after winning it. Otherwise it just sounds like sour grapes. But yeah, nice to win it merely to stop the “Champions of Europe, you’ll never sing that!” Songs. But I much prefer a Premier League win. Sorry, but there it is.
People continually moan about the clear corruption of UEFA, the 100% money driven nature of the whole organisation, the clear and obvious agenda against our unwelcomed team, the snide on pitch refereeing decisions given at big moments to knock us out (what felt like) every year, the weird VAR calls against us, the favouring and protection shown to the 'European Royalty' clubs, the eyebrow raising fines, ...etc...etc...etc, yet somehow can't bring themselves to see that it's a big circus and that it's a fucking joke of a competition.

32 teams down to 16 after a two legged tie.
16 down to 8, then 4, then 2 and finally crown the CHAMPIONS.
Now that's a cup competition I can get behind.

But then you run the risk of a Grasshoppers Zurich vs Lokomotiv Istanbul final and that wouldn't please 'the public' as we all know 'they' want a 'European Royalty' final. It's all smoke and fucking mirrors, just like FFP and PSR and all the other bollocks that's been spun out at us.

The singular driving force of this sham is in maintaining the old elite.

Died so much further back in time than that shitty spuds v scousers final.

The competitions a joke, glad we won it, would like to win it again, but it's a fucking circus.
 

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