Champs League Draw

[I'm With Stupid]

Do you say that French and Russian leagues aren't competitive enough to warrant 1st seeds and replace them with 2nd from leagues ranked 1&2?

I think that's the whole point of it though. The current system is not only biased towards the established clubs, it's also biased towards the big leagues, and I don't think that's particularly fair either. I see no reason why the champions of Russia shouldn't be top seeds if they won their league. Obviously you only have the 7 best leagues in pot 1, but it would make it more even, I think. This new system wouldn't guarantee an easy draw for the top seeds, of course, but that's not what it's about. It's about stopping certain teams being protected from a difficult draw every year.

Also funny they'd discussing new rules just as the old ones are about to benefit us.

 

[Citizen in Pakistan]

Though our group is relatively tough than last season but we've outside chance of finishing at top

 

[Bill]

uefa will stop at nothing to hold up our progress, however we are one year on and with the new players we are going to rip platini a new one.
if we get anywhere near winning this they will change the format to suit.

 

[pardoeofftomexico]

This is the wrong time for a change in the system for City. On UEFA.com they are showing the current co-efficients for 2014-15 which should be updated as points are earned. United would almost certainly be in pot 2 next year if they qualified. The current points place Chelsea 4th with 122.9, United 6th with 100.9, Arsenal 10th with 91.9, City 16th with 73.9 and Liverpool 45th with 38.9. However, this years points will be added in due course which will increase all of the figures except United. There are several clubs that are likely to finish the season with more points than United which will mean they slip below 8th place. It can also be seen that had Arsenal been eliminated last week then they would be struggling to stay in the pot 1 although they could have earned points in the Europa League.

The only way I would expect City to be in pot 1 next year on co-efficients would be by getting to the final but we are getting there gradually. The system now proposed may have put us in pot 1 but how likely is it that we would have drawn Barcelona in another strong group. The best chance for those who want an easier group is to keep the system as it is, qualify in pot 1 in a couple of years time and then be kept apart from most of the big teams.

 

[nixmith2]

Wow, I'm amazed they're actually doing something about it. Of course once the "big" clubs have had a word in their ear, it'll probably end up as a shit version of what they originally intended.

I bet in the small print it will include something like: if your team play in red with chev-ro-let on the front, you are in Pot 1, even if you finish 10th in your league!

 

[Bozzie]

Whilst the 'draw' is clearly fixed because of the myriad of provisions and restrictions in place about who can play who and when, I can't convince my self that it's 'bent'. Could you begin to imagine the fall out if it was ever proved that UEFA had engineered the draw other than by use of a series of convoluted, but accepted rules. There would be so many in line to sue them it wouldn't even be worth joining the queue and UEFA would simply end up being disbanded. The only question I would ask, is why 4 different people picked the balls for the teams and the same guy drew all the balls for the groups.
If there are going to be changes in the way teams are seeded then, once again, Platini has admitted that like FFP, he can only act with the blessing of the 'big' clubs. So I don't hold out much hope for any favourable changes towards City. Bayern may well have something to say about the current system as they seem to be the elite team that consistently gets handed the toughest group.

 

[BlueAnorak]

I note that UEFA are looking at changing the draw rules...
I guess that Bayern, Barcelona and Real Madrid have had enough of getting a tough group with us in it and have broken ranks with the English Old G14 members...
;-)

 

[Blue Mooner]

Whilst the 'draw' is clearly fixed because of the myriad of provisions and restrictions in place about who can play who and when, I can't convince my self that it's 'bent'. Could you begin to imagine the fall out if it was ever proved that UEFA had engineered the draw other than by use of a series of convoluted, but accepted rules. There would be so many in line to sue them it wouldn't even be worth joining the queue and UEFA would simply end up being disbanded. The only question I would ask, is why 4 different people picked the balls for the teams and the same guy drew all the balls for the groups.
If there are going to be changes in the way teams are seeded then, once again, Platini has admitted that like FFP, he can only act with the blessing of the 'big' clubs. So I don't hold out much hope for any favourable changes towards City. Bayern may well have something to say about the current system as they seem to be the elite team that consistently gets handed the toughest group.

Because the picking of the team is irrelevant, the picking of the group is key if you want to fix it, which after all the permutations and restrictions are taken into account wouldn't be that hard to do.

 

[adrianr]

I note that UEFA are looking at changing the draw rules...
I guess that Bayern, Barcelona and Real Madrid have had enough of getting a tough group with us in it and have broken ranks with the English Old G14 members...
;-)

Getting Bayern three times out of four may have had a large hand in this. They're definitely one of the more vocal cartel members and Hoeness, Ruminegge etc always have their sticky fingers somewhere.

 

[117 M34]

Knowing our luck they will change the seedings, we will win the league and then we will get barca who finished 2nd in the league.