Sir Scott McToMinay
New Member
14 groups games? My god that sounds tedious.
There used to be two group stages, plus qualifying.How exactly do they plan on fitting a 14 game league part in when there's only 6 games currently, and the schedule is already jam packed?
You think that's even a possibility?There would be no football without the match-going fans. No one wants to watch Manchester United play against Real Madrid in an empty stadium.
I think they're running the show...Wont somebody please think of the children
Good craigRemember when you used to qualify from your group of 4 to end up in another group of 4.
Those were the days.
Premier League already up in arms.
Welcome to the real world where individual companies have more power than state government (eg Amazon 2nd HQ).The fact that there are "mega clubs" and that they have more power than national FAs is exactly what's wrong with the game.
Greed, greed, and more greed.
PSG will probably be delighted with this, makes their quest to win the CL so so much easier.Of course we like to see the big boys up against each other, but it has also started to become too boring/predictable with the same teams meeting over and over, and I'm getting quite sick of the race for top 4 too.
Going back to Champions only will not only give small teams a possibility of getting a little deeper into the competition, improving their situation, but it could also improve competition in the domestic leagues as nobody is settling for 4th place finish each year. It would also improve the Europa League as it will inevitably have stronger teams.
There are quite a few positives to going back to the old format. The biggest negative for everyone involved is loss of money for the big boys, but boo hoo for them.
Welcome to the real world where individual companies have more power than state government (eg Amazon 2nd HQ).
Why should football be different?
The Lithuanian champions FK Sūduva did actually get a place in the CL qualifying round, they made it to round 2 and lost 5-0 on agg to Crvena Zvezda.To Lithuanians, it definitely is. You're not saying Lithuanians are too inferior a people to deserve being allowed to root for their own teams?
Viewers prefer to have an emotional stake in watching their team defeat other teams. Are you really more involved in watching the 4th placed Spanish team play the fouth of Serie A, than you are seeing your own team or countrymen play say... "the champion of Country X"? I bet you only watch the highlights of the first, if that.
Unless the results of the game had been epic. Like how Real Madrid - Ajax was received and made headlines all over the world, exactly because it was a high rated Spanish team being kicked out by a supposedly chanceless team. Will you remember a 3-0 win by Tottenham over Dortmund from that same night, or a 1-4 victory over Real Madrid by a small team nobody thought could win because of having a tenth in budget?
Sadly arrogance leads bigger countries to think they're automatically entitled to a bigger share of the pie to the point the rest can't even get to fight over the crumbs, because they're not allowed to participate. In the real world, this is called corruption. In the minds of people like yourself, it's "only logical that superior competitions get superior representation and superior parts of the pie to ensure we not just stay, but become even more superior".
How would you feel if your country's teams could never even attempt to play for the biggest cup in Europe? Just for fun, imagine no Spanish, Italian or English teams participating in Europe for 20 years. Imagine you being a fan having to root for teams you have no personal connection with whatsoever, no rivalry towards whatsoever. Now imagine living in one of these small countries and being snubbed at, because you haven't won anything in 40 years, even though you havn't been allowed to participate in 40 years because you're too small. It's a case of the rich enriching the rich and trodding on the little guy.
Knock-out cups are fun, exactly because cup fighters can rise above themselves over two matches, which they likely couldn't repeat in a longer competition. Hence why we have Willem II (position 10/18 in the Eredivisie) in the Dutch cup finals and a team like Calais RUFC (sadly Calais RUFC, a team in 2000 consisting of teachers, dock workers and office clerks) made it to the French cup finals in 2000 (lost to Nantes 1-2, despite leading 1-0). Bankrupt, Calais was liquidated in 2017 over a few hundred thousand debt.
But yay we get to see teams with half a billion in debt win in the CL in no small thanks to buying players with their massive, unchecked debts. Debts that nobody adresses despite "financial fairplay"! Such funs for the neutral observer that corrupt money wins by default... Great messaging too:
"If you're not rich, you don't matter".
"If you're not already entitled, don't bother, because you're not going to be given a chance to succeed."
"Nobody likes you because you're poor/small."
"If you don't already have a tradition of winning, why should you become one of the potential winners?"
"If you're from nation X you're a lesser person than if you're from nation A."
"Everyone's equal, but Brits, Italians and Spanish are more equal."
That's what sportsmanship is about according to you, right? Who got the most money? Should we also just tell 95% of the Olympic contestants to sod off then? Because hey, who watches the Olympics when non-rich people can partake?
Anyway. The idea of these bigger CL groups is simply to ensure that the teams with most money stand a better chance of not being knocked out due to a fluke failure. The less matches there are, the less chance they have of correcting their point losses and the more unpredictable results will be. Predictability is bad for emotion. I would say this change is a horrendous proposal designed to stifle competition. It's another Coup d'État by the bigger teams, possibly a Coup de Grace for smaller clubs who'll have no chance left to compete. Even if they manage unicorn epic wins against a team they normally wouldn't beat considering finances.
Awful idea. Champions League for champions I say, both big and small. Knock-out rounds only. No preferential seeding. Pure chance.
Is that why Cuomo has almost been begging Bezos to reconsider?
I refer you to Amazon being a bitch and pulling out of New York. Let me guess. You think New York will collapse as a result.
Is that why Cuomo has almost been begging Bezos to reconsider?
If you don't favor the big company, they will just go elsewhere.
If you don't have a CL that's favorable to mega clubs, they will also go elsewhere.
Let's not get further away from the CL and into the Amazon HQ2 issue.Cuomo doesn't count, otherwise Bezos would have his way. He didn't though, and left like a bitch. City still thriving.
Only quoting your last part, but brilliant post all of it!Awful idea. Champions League for champions I say, both big and small. Knock-out rounds only. No preferential seeding. Pure chance.
Yes. I kind of expected this from the english clubs tbh. Just stand firm on this. No way it will happen without England participating in it.
They got a place to try to get a place. What am I complaining about when some loser #4 gets in without any pre-rounds?The Lithuanian champions FK Sūduva did actually get a place in the CL qualifying round, they made it to round 2 and lost 5-0 on agg to Crvena Zvezda.
They actually did get a place and lost in a pure knockout round just as you advocate, what are you complaining about?
Yes. Nobody likes watching Real Madrid.Are you absolutely certain that most Lithuanians would prefer to see FK Suduva play on TV than Real Madrid?
Yes.
Great idea. We should be playing teams like Barca and Real every season not once every 5 years.
Much more fun watching the champions of Lithuania or whoever than the 2nd placed team from Spain.
If they struggle to even get through qualifying, what's the point of giving them a full round 1 place?They got a place to try to get a place. What am I complaining about when some loser #4 gets in without any pre-rounds?
Are you dense, or just pretending to be?
Now you want the bigger European leagues to do what? Give away their TV revenue to the smaller leagues?Well just fyi before moneyball teams from "lesser leagues" were actually pretty great.
Plus it eliminates the whole "top 4" shite and makes the other european competition mean more, which is a good thing.
Yeah right. Because if your team doesn’t play the G14, then you won’t support your team in another league?Let's not get further away from the CL and into the Amazon HQ2 issue.
The point is, if the CL reverts to the old EC format, the mega clubs will simply leave and set up shop somewhere else, much like Amazon not going to NY.
I doubt the CL will thrive without the original G14.
No, the focus on the big teams is the number of fans those teams themselves have.Yeah right. Because if your team doesn’t play the G14, then you won’t support your team in another league?
Have you noticed that people watch football teams in domestic leagues that don’t have the G14?
Yes?
The only reason there is focus on the “big teams” is the numbers of domestic viewers in the competition those are from. The only reason the CL has more teams from these competitions is to ensure more of those people watch, because they DIDN’T WATCH WHEN THEIR TEAM WASN’T PARTICIPATING.
No, the focus on the big teams is the number of fans those teams themselves have.
If they struggle to even get through qualifying, what's the point of giving them a full round 1 place?
Now you want the bigger European leagues to do what? Give away their TV revenue to the smaller leagues?
Destroy the Champions League to make the Europa League better. What a ridiculous idea.
If they struggle to even get through qualifying, what's the point of giving them a full round 1 place?
Now you want the bigger European leagues to do what? Give away their TV revenue to the smaller leagues?