QuoteBad. Champions League is too big as it is. It's strength has devalued the Europa League to a ridiculous extent.
Good/bad?
http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/soc...327234376.htmlA proposal to abolish the Europa League and double the size of the Champions League to 64 clubs is among a number of changes to European competitions being considered by Uefa.The European governing body is pondering changes to both their club competitions and will make a decision in 2014.
Another proposal being looked at is to award Champions League qualification to the winners of the Europa League, and possibly even the runners-up too, in a bid to boost interest in the second-tier competition.
Uefa president Michel Platini confirmed the proposal for a 64-club Champions League is being looked at.
In an interview with French newspaper Ouest-France, he said: “There is an ongoing debate to determine what form the European competitions will take between 2015 and 2018. We talk, and we will make a decision in 2014. There is nothing decided yet.”
A 64-club competition would see as many as seven English clubs and five Scottish teams entering at various stages of the qualifying rounds.
Bad. Champions League is too big as it is. It's strength has devalued the Europa League to a ridiculous extent.
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
On first glance, doesn't this mean there'll be less teams overall in Europe? Sneaky backdoor towards a Euro super league maybe.
That would be a disgraceful decision by UEFA. The Champions League is meant to be exclusive and the top level of football in Europe. As BonnieShels has already stated, it's too big as it is.
If they're scrapping the Europa League, I'd like to see the return of the ECWC.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
I doubt that they'd bring in wrestling to satiate your needs Nige.Originally Posted by nigel-harps1954
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
Wouldn't you pay to see someone like Richard Dunne wrestle some fella from the depths of Lithuania?
Although...I do believe that was just ECW and not ECWC
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Wouldn't you pay to see someone like Richard Dunne wrestle some fella from the depths of Lithuania?
Although...I do believe that was just ECW and not ECWC
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
How would a 64 team competition be sorted? 16 groups of 4, with the winners going through to the last 16?
I presume so, because it would be difficult to add match days to the football calendar to allow for an 8 team group.
Right now, it''s hard to see that format being better than the current twin tier format.
This is not a bad idea, it's not a cure for the EL, but could be an acceptable compromise.
More from PlatiniAnother proposal being looked at is to award Champions League qualification to the winners of the Europa League, and possibly even the runners-up too, in a bid to boost interest in the second-tier competition.
Platini also left the door ajar for video refereeing to rule on offside decisions. ..... "If you want to put the technology on the goal line, just that, it costs us €32m in the first year and €54m over five years. For 5 Referees/Officials, it costs us €2.3m per year. The calculation is done quickly".
Now it's into the last 16 phase.
Considering Benfica faced an already qualified, weakened, almost hapless Barca and Spartak were all out with guns blazing for some form of revenge/redemption, Celtic did well to better Benfica's result on the night.
Spartak's discipline was desperate, it's as if the players have a license to lose the rag, have a free pass to attempt crazy yellow card tackles, even McGeady was affected.
It's not surprising that they're in relative turmoil.
La Liga rules with 4 teams, next comes the Bundesliga with 3 teams through.
A nervy performance.
Dortmund or Malaga would be nice, but the next round. almost certainly the end of the road...
Luckily we know better, that the EPL is still the best league in the world despite all reason and available evidence.
Funny, there was one challenge he made about 5 minutes from the end of the match, and I could have sworn he did it on purpose just to help the Celtic cause.
https://kesslereffect.bandcamp.com/album/kepler - New music. It's not that bad.
Before I start, I'm not saying which is better. Available evidence would suggest that it's well up there though if we are just basing it on Champions League stats. Let's take the last ten seasons and the four major leagues, which I think are obviously England, Spain, Italy and Germany. In addition to the table, both England and Spain have had five different quarter finalists in the period, which is a quarter of their respective top divisions. Impressive enough really. Italy have had four and there have only been two from Germany. The Sky Sports and tabloid driven 'best league in the world' thing annoys me too but it doesn't necessarily mean it's always completely wrong. A pet hate of mine is when the commentators remind us that a game isn't over because "this is the Premier League where anything can happen", as if it's the only league with late goals and incidents. I don't think there's much in it either way between England and Spain, but obviously Spain have the outstanding club of the period. In fact, the Real Madrid team at the beginning of the period was better than anything England have produced as well.
2002/03 - 2011/12 ENGLAND SPAIN ITALY GERMANY Winners 3 3 3 NIL Runners-up 5 NIL 2 2 No. of winning clubs 3 1 2 NIL Semi finalists 15 11 7 3 Quarter finalists 24 16 16 7
Last edited by DeLorean; 07/12/2012 at 9:46 AM.
That's mad that Spanish clubs have lost 8 of 11 semis, but then Barca have won each of the three finals they've made.
I know the English league looks the best, or at least top two, based on results but in terms of quality of football I think it's clear the continental sides are pulling ahead technically and tactically - all they need now is the money to attract the high-end players the EPL does.
I'd like to see the Europa League stats, I think they're relevant to the discussion.
I like high energy football. A little bit rock and roll. Many finishes instead of waiting for the perfect one.
It took about 5 seasons after the CL format begun 1992/3, before an EPL club made it into the last 8.
I suppose the money began to kick in by then.
Personally I think the German League is better than the Spanish League. Obviously Barcelona and Real Madrid are very strong teams, and probably both are in top 5 in terms of European club sides. But its interesting to note that last year Real Madrid were knocked out by a German team who had to qualify for the group stage via the play-offs - Bayern finished 3rd in 2010-11, and so had to beat Zuerich in the playoffs. Much is made of the fact that all 4 Spanish teams have made it through the group stage this year, it's interesting to note that 2 of those four (Real and Valenica) finished 2nd in their groups behind German teams (Dortmund and Bayern) - indeed all three of the German teams topped their groups (Schalke finished ahead of Arsenal) - the 4th team, Galdbach, were knocked by an 88th min goal in Kiev. Now that Germany has eclipsed Italy and has 4 teams in the CL, German clubs will get more of a run at the CL, boosting their seeding and meaning teams like Dortmund will not longer be placed as bottom seeds in groups of death, German clubs should get stronger and stronger in the CL.
If you take the leagues themselves, then the Spanish league is fairly uncompetitive in terms of possible winners. In the last years there have only been two winners (Barca and Real), whereas the German League has had three winners (Bayern, Dortmund, Wolfsburg) as has the Premier League (Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City). But the sterile nature of the competitiveness of La Liga is really exposed when you look at the number of unique teams that have finished in the top 3 in the last 5 years. In Spain there are only 4 teams who've finished in the top thee (Barca, Real, Villareal and Valencia), the Premier League is little better with 4 unique top 3 finishing teams in 5 years (Man Utd, Chelsea, City, Liverpool, Arsenal), but the German Bundesliga has 7 (Bayern, Dortmund, Wolfsburg, Bremen, Schalke, Leverkusen and Stuttgart). If you want an exciting league where you cannot easily predict any of the top 3, let alone the order of it, then Germany is far ahead of Spain.
Here are the league positions by the way:
2007–08 Bayern Munich Werder Bremen Schalke 04
2008–09 VfL Wolfsburg Bayern Munich VfB Stuttgart
2009–10 Bayern Munich Schalke 04 Werder Bremen
2010–11 Borussia Dortmund Bayer Leverkusen Bayern Munich
2011–12 Borussia Dortmund Bayern Munich Schalke 04
2007–08 Man Utd Chelsea Arsenal
2008–09 Man Utd Liverpool Chelsea
2009–10 Chelsea Man Utd Arsenal
2010–11 Man Utd Chelsea Man City
2011–12 Man City Man Utd Arsenal
2007–08 Real Madrid Villarreal Barcelona
2008–09 Barcelona Real Madrid Valencia
2009–10 Barcelona Real Madrid Valencia
2010–11 Barcelona Real Madrid Valencia
2011–12 Real Madrid Barcelona Valencia
La Liga may not be competitive re who wins the title, but the overall standard is very high.
EL final 2012 2 La Liga teams.
I think you can safely say that Ath Madrid have a superb team and judging by the games that Barca are involved in La Liga compared to the CL, you can easily see where they really have to sweat as distinct from almost total domination.
2002/03 - 2011/12 ENGLAND SPAIN ITALY GERMANY Winners NIL 5 NIL NIL Runners-up 2 2 NIL 1 No. of winning clubs NIL 3 NIL NIL Semi finalists 4 11 3 5 Quarter finalists 8 15 5 11
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