The 2018/2019 UEFA Champion's League and International Club News Thread

[devo22]

I know this isn't a very popular opinion, but: make it happen. I'd rather see 16 big teams playing against each other every week than the CL in its current form.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I actually think it's a very popular opinion among the fans. Among the FAs who would lose a lot of money, not so much. I would love to have a league where the "weakest team" can still realistically beat the best team, unlike now where most leagues only have 10-15 interesting matches a season.

[devo22]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

I actually think it's a very popular opinion among the fans.

not in Europe, no. There's a lot of "romanticism" among football fans over here and a lot of fans are for tradition and against the commercialisation of the game. Those Super League plans are what a lot of fans would call "Americanisation".

[Senator Clay Davis]

Yeah American sports remain interesting far longer than European sports. By January most fans don't care about domestic leagues and focus on UCL because that remains interesting until the end. I get the romanticism of it all, but there's not much romantic about 90% of the league's teams not ever being factors for actual trophies. This would probably help make domestic leagues more competitive too.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by White Out 403

Am I overreacting or is this biggest football news in decades?

Its not exactly been a well-kept secret. They've been at this for a long time and the major culprit is the considerable congestion of fixtures.

Top teams play too many games and their players who are likely internationals play even more.

It does make a certain degree of sense, you must admit.

England is a fairly competitive league, especially lately, but its still top-heavy and you still have teams complaining about going to bush-league grounds and playing on chewed up pitches where the ball bounces everywhere and players get hurt.

- Spain? 3 Competitive teams and the rest are fodder.

- Germany? 2, maybe 3 Competitive teams?

- Italy? Juve have won the Serie A 6 or 7 times in a row, usually by a fair margin. AC and Inter have been become marginal clubs due to financial turmoil. Beyond that their competitve teams rotate.

- France? 1 Competitive team? Maybe 2?

- Holland? Belgium?

So yeah, you can kind of see some of these bigger teams not wanting to waste their time, talent and resources on blowing out minnows most weeks or losing their expensive players to injury on pointless international duties.

I hope it doesnt happen, but I can understand the idea behind it.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Plus lets not kid ourselves, the value of a global TV deal in a league that can have Man Utd, Liverpool, Barca, Real Madrid, Bayern, Juventus playing each other week in and out is going to be insane. Probably worth more than the World Cup TV deals.

[SuperMatt18]

I hate the idea - but mostly because I think it will hurt the quality of world football long term.

I think the domestic leagues + champions league is actually the best of both worlds.

We have very successful domestic leagues that may not be the most competitive week to week, but still play a big role in developing talent and providing an entertaining product.

Then we have the champions league to get those best on best match ups that are special because they are more rare.

I do wonder if there is an opportunity to reduce the number of domestic games and international friendlies with those games then allowing for a different Champions League structure.

I think with the very real threat of the big teams just leaving the domestic leagues, that those domestic leagues may be more open to change. Change or be crushed by the new super league.

Today most of the big leagues have 20 teams and play 38 fixtures. What if instead of 20 teams they went down to 16 teams and played 30 fixtures.

Then use those 8 extra fixtures so the Champions League can have more games.

Today you have 32 teams in the group stage (6 match days) and then right to the knockout stage - where you usually see a lot of great teams quickly eliminated in the round of 16.

So how about instead of the knockout round of 16 they introduce a new 16 team group stage instead (4 groups of 4) with each team playing a home and away fixture and the top two from each group making it to the quarter finals.

For example last year you would have had Man U, Basel, PSG, Bayern Munich, Roma, Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, Liverpool, Sevilla, Man City, Shaktar, Bestikas, Porto, Tottenham, and Real Madrid making up the 4 groups for the "Super Group" stage.

Then you go to the quarterfinals, semi-finals, and finals.

I'd much rather something like that then just a straight Super league.

[Slava]

And of course the other issue with the Super League is that some of these teams weren’t that “super” last year. I get it, it’s basically the top spenders, but Arsenal and Chelsea didn’t even qualify for the CL. What about a few years ago when Leicester won the league? That’s what I like about CL; teams have to win to be there regardless of whether they spend the money.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Slava

And of course the other issue with the Super League is that some of these teams weren’t that “super” last year. I get it, it’s basically the top spenders, but Arsenal and Chelsea didn’t even qualify for the CL. What about a few years ago when Leicester won the league? That’s what I like about CL; teams have to win to be there regardless of whether they spend the money.

Yup you will probably just have a new league that has the same issues the other domestic leagues have.

It will be top heavy and there will be perennial bottom feeders. Plus those teams will have less incentive to ensure they remain competitive year after year because there will be no relegation.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by Slava

And of course the other issue with the Super League is that some of these teams weren’t that “super” last year. I get it, it’s basically the top spenders, but Arsenal and Chelsea didn’t even qualify for the CL. What about a few years ago when Leicester won the league? That’s what I like about CL; teams have to win to be there regardless of whether they spend the money.

Because it's about fan base size and not how well they play. If Man Utd finish 14th this year, they are still gonna have a far bigger fan base than every other PL team. I get that CL forces you to "earn" your way in, but it also promotes complacency since top four is considered a "successful season", even though it obviously should not be. The Super League will eliminate settling for top four, top four is meaningless when there is no reward

I think there should be relegation though. Maybe have a new "Europa League" to determine the promoted teams. But if not this, then I like the idea of going back to a true "Champions League" where the only teams who qualify are actual champions. Top four has simply incentivized mediocrity domestically.

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Yeah American sports remain interesting far longer than European sports. By January most fans don't care about domestic leagues and focus on UCL because that remains interesting until the end. I get the romanticism of it all, but there's not much romantic about 90% of the league's teams not ever being factors for actual trophies. This would probably help make domestic leagues more competitive too.

Thats insane if you think fans dont care about the domestic leagues past january

[GirlySports]

As a Marseille fan I am surprised they are in the guests list. They haven't done anything in a long time while Lyon won a bunch of French title in a row in the 2000s.

Guess money talks.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

As a Marseille fan I am surprised they are in the guests list. They haven't done anything in a long time while Lyon won a bunch of French title in a row in the 2000s.

Guess money talks.

That was a very long time ago.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

As a Marseille fan I am surprised they are in the guests list. They haven't done anything in a long time while Lyon won a bunch of French title in a row in the 2000s.

Guess money talks.

You still want the easy wins!

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Locke

That was a very long time ago.

sure but Marseille won the french title in 92, 93 and 10 and nothing else. Yes they are the only french team to win the Champions League but that was also in 93.

Heck Monaco has achieved more lately.

[nik-]

It's not about titles, it's about the TV contract. Marseilles is an incredibly popular club.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by d_phaneuf

Thats insane if you think fans dont care about the domestic leagues past january

About who wins them? Mostly that's wrapped by January. Which leaves caring about top four (which promotes mediocrity), and relegation (which means watching crap matches). So yes, you are right, fans do care, but they don't really care about the actual title because it's usually in the bag. I suppose you could argue eliminating top four for UCL would actually make things even less interesting, but it would also make finishing third a total failure rather than "Well we have Champions League".

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by nik-

It's not about titles, it's about the TV contract. Marseilles is an incredibly popular club.

Yup that's true. I for one will happy if this happens and hope they don't get destroyed

They'll have to spend much more than they do now though.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Assuming they split any TV deal equitably, they'll have lots more money to spend.

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

About who wins them? Mostly that's wrapped by January. Which leaves caring about top four (which promotes mediocrity), and relegation (which means watching crap matches). So yes, you are right, fans do care, but they don't really care about the actual title because it's usually in the bag. I suppose you could argue eliminating top four for UCL would actually make things even less interesting, but it would also make finishing third a total failure rather than "Well we have Champions League".

If its about who wins maybe, but the whole point and difference between football in europe and most american sports is how much more passionate they are

The issue with a champions league only champions thing is it massively devalues the tournament, also how often would a good game happen?

Theres 5 teams that would matter in it and 30 odd ones who would be fodder