I think we can all say that the real excitement of a competition like this comes from the jeopardy, the thrill of win or lose.
Group stages are, not boring, but less important. To expand a group stage expands the feeling of less importance,less risk, less interest from the fans.
But, crucially, more money.
A league shoes who is best over a full season and is rightly revered for that. It shows the best team consistently rather than in a knockout. But when the gap between teams is larger then the table will become separated faster, and it becomes a bit of a pointless exercise on the sporting sense. Personally I don't think having a domestic league and a European one will do anything for me. Domestic means more because it's is who we are, where we are from, as a club and mostly as fans.
No idea where all these extra games will fit. Maybe I'll be proven wrong, and it's inevitable as the money men want it, but I really can see fans giving up if the number of games keeps increasing. It just won't feel as special.
But maybe that's preferred, they don't want fans but casual subscribers watching on telly in droves?
