New CL proposals: “Swiss system” favoured by clubs

[Blueknows]

I don't know the process behind reducing the teams in the PL, but I can't imagine that being something that would be agreed by any club not consistently in the CL.

I can't imagine many fans would be happy seeing their team play the same European opponents every year, with a reduced PL, an abolished League Cup etc. They might get more money initially, but if fans don't want to watch it, then they wont be getting vast sums from broadcasting deals for very long.

Its the smaller clubs Id feel sorry for especially abolishing fa cup replays which they rely on for income playing a bigger club

 

[Blueknows]

Great idea , add more non-deserving teams into the equasion, and bore the arses of everybody for longer.

Chamions League and hangers on Cup ?

or why not just have 32 champions of all European leagues with the same format as is now ?...then we can really call it the champions league


...are there 32 European countries ?

 

[Gazza]

Going by the co-efficients; - we'd get Bayern, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus & PSG home and away.
Liverpool/United would get Rhyl, Upper Volta B, Tromso, Port Vale & St Mirren.

 

[Fiftyyearsandcounting]

36 professional leagues in Europe. Take out 4 based on some formula and just the winners play H & A on a straight knockout basis. Has this been tried before?
It does mean R32, R16, R8, R4 = 8 games + the final. If that doesn't raise enough money to fill some official's Swiss bank account,then include the second place team and the 1st round of 64 is winners against 2nd from different league.

 

[jrb]

Finish 6th in the PL and get a CL place.

At least finishing 4th is closer to 1st. ;-)

 

[Parisian]

In other words, the current CL format is shite, and UEFA wants to try to reinvigorate the competition.

They want more "big games" to get more viewership and more sponsors money. This money being redistributed to the big clubs with, of course, an historical coefficient to make things more "fair". And you can't be relegated easily which means you get a substancial annuity.

 

[domalino]

or why not just have 32 champions of all European leagues with the same format as is now ?...then we can really call it the champions league


...are there 32 European countries ?

Because that would be shit.

I don't know why people keep pretending they're offended by the name Champions League, or they'd rather watch fucking Qarabag play Molde than Dortmund-PSG.

The point is to have the best 32 teams in Europe compete to decide who's best.

It's not the 1950's anymore, Serbia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia (doesn't even exist anymore), Hungary etc. don't have great teams to take on the competition, they're just a collection of league 2 and conference quality sides which would either play out boring draws between themselves or get twatted 10-0 on aggregate.

 

[dickie davies]

48 teams qualifying for the group stage
16 leagues of 3 teams
The top two qualify for the knockout stage, where anyone can draw anyone

The 16 that finish bottom can fall into the Europa

 

[cjn]

Am I the only one who mostly just likes the format as is? I have no interest in watching the champion of Switzerland get destroyed by Madrid so the idea of bringing new leagues into it doesn't appeal to me at all. An idea I've seen that could potentially be interesting though would be reducing the group stages into just two large, but still seeded, groups. Higher seeds would still have a big advantage, but it would introduce a little more randomness into the scheduling which could produce some more drama earlier into the tournament. But really the goal for me is still to see the best teams compete in the knockout stages.

 

[bluesteel]

I wish the sheikhs would fuck the FA and UEFA off, invite 17 other clubs to a breakaway league with a new governing body (one without corruption).

All UK home games to be 3pm on a Saturday.

I’d start going again then.

City
PSG
Real Madrid
Barca
Ajax
United
AC Milan
Bayern Munich
Dortmund
Inter Milan
Monaco
Porto
Liverpool
Chelsea
Athletico Madrid
Celtic
Arsenal
Spurs

No relegation.