The European Champions League has become a cash cow for UEFA and has taken all the fun out of discovering Europe’s best team. It’s time for the tournament to be taken back to its traditional style in order to revive the tournament.
The excitement of the Champions League has been lost, and the dead rubbers and foregone conclusions turn the early stages into drudgery.
Consider, for example, this week’s fixtures in Group H. AC Milan, champions of Italy, travel to Belarus to play FC BATE Borisov (whose UEFA ranking for those playing at home is 61).
Meanwhile, in the same group Barcelona, champions of Spain and Europe, will travel to the Czech Republic to play FC Viktoria Plzen (UEFA ranking 151). Milan and Barcelona are tied at the top of Group H on seven points. BATE and Plzen sit locked on one point below them.
With three games to go, it would take a bizarre series of results to see Milan or Barca fail to progress to the next round, but I could have told you that before the tournament kicked off.
While small teams can manage one big upset victory, maybe even two, rarely can they continue to overturn the form book over six games, home and away. Simply, this group is a foregone conclusion, and has been for some time.
Now, apologists for UEFA will argue that there is still much to play for each team. Seedings for the knockout round are based placings in the group, there’s spots in the Europa League, and prizemoney! Be still my beating heart, we are supposed to say. ”
In reality, these are of superficial value to the football fan. They don’t tug at the emotions like a knockout competition does.
The time has come for this silliness to end. It’s time for the Champions League and the Europa League to be merged, and returned to a true European Cup.
Working much like the FA Cup and others like it, it would be open to hundreds of teams around Europe to qualify through the preliminary rounds, with the best sides from the European leagues qualifying automatically for the first full round (like Round 3 of the FA Cup, where the big clubs come in).
League winners and high finishers would be in there. Present day Europa League participants would be there. Cup winners would be there.
Importantly, each round of the tournament should consist of only one leg, the host of which is decided by a draw. The away goals rule of two legged games leads to turgid encounters which are more about avoiding the concession of a goal than striving to score one.
Look at those Group H fixtures and consider instead of playing out a procession in which, even if Milan or Barcelona lose they’ll still probably qualify for the next round, imagine if these matches were sudden death.
If Barcelona are drawn away to Plzen, they’ve got to send their best side, and find a way to win in foreign conditions and in a hostile environment. If Milan draw BATE at home they’ll be favourites, but going 1-0 down early would see the pressure rise.
Watching the Italian champions with the crowd on their back having to break down a side full of confidence and clinging onto a lead would truly be worth getting up at 5am for.
In this style of tournament, ‘giant killing’ runs become a real possibility and the European Cup has far more excitement and far less inevitability. Rather than waiting until February for the big boys to finally be set loose on each other in knockout games, it’s on from the outset. Manchester United can’t get to Inter Milan if they don’t find a way past FC Kopenhagen first.
At the moment, the group stage of the Champions League is just about ‘getting the job done’; clinically getting through the formalities with as few wounds as possible. This negative approach would be gone. To prove worthiness of the title of European champions, a team would need to get through every challenge European football can provide.
Every team in Europe trying to win the same trophy, major football powers put under real pressure by hardy minnows, and a tournament where in every game either side could progress or be eliminated.
There might not be as much money in it, but it’d be a proper football competition.
Recommend this story.
The Turkey 10
The Turkey 10 teams have now been selected, as Wild Turkey Bourbon's sport sponsorship kicks into the next exciting phase.
Choose which side you're going to support and get in the running to win $2,500!
Simply visit Wild Turkey Australia on Facebook for your chance to win.
Find out more.
- Explore:
- football, UEFA Champions League
November 2nd 2011 @ 10:02am
Steve said | November 2nd 2011 @ 10:02am | Report comment
Look I see what you’re saying, but BATE drew with Milan. This is important because Milan were ahead of Barca in the group standings and still had a home game against Barca. They were in the pole position to top the group (if you prescribe to the theory that the home team should win – although not necessarily true against Barca).
The fact is the draw that Milan had with BATE has made it more likely they will now finish 2nd in the group. This has implications, they may be forced to play a team like Real Madrid or Bayern in the 2nd round. It’s not as simple as “who qualifies”, they’re standings matter also.
The same goes with Utd, who after a couple of draws have to win the next few to assure qualification and assure 1st spot if possible. They will have not played 1 meaningless CL game this campaign.
As well, it allows teams like BATE and Viktoria Pilsen to get exposure against the best teams to improve themselves and therefore their leagues.
It is why you can have a team like Shakhtar making the quarters last year, and I think it’s great!
The only team to have won every game, Real Madrid, have Ajax and Lyon in their group, and while they have dispatched them, these aren’t easy “going through the motion” type games.
November 2nd 2011 @ 11:31am
Football United said | November 2nd 2011 @ 11:31am | Report comment
yeah we’d all love that. my dad never stops rambling about how good the european cup was in the 50′s and 60′s when it was still a knockout and by far the game to go to.
November 2nd 2011 @ 11:45am
Ben Carter said | November 2nd 2011 @ 11:45am | Report comment
Hi MC – it”s a perennial question. And a fair one. I’d love to see a huge k-o style European Cup (as it used to be), but only containing the actual league and cup champions from each UEFA nation (include the league runners-up if the league and cup champs are the same team). You’d probably have just 64 teams I’d say, but it would be the best of the best and also represent every part of the continent.
November 2nd 2011 @ 12:04pm
oly said | November 2nd 2011 @ 12:04pm | Report comment
Unfortunately top European clubs rely on the cash injected from a guaranteed six group games and possible knockout matches too.
Why can’t to go back to how it was about 15 years ago? Have qualifiers then the final 16 go into four groups of four. The six groups games would then all be important because it would be the top 16 clubs in Europe. Then quarters, semi-finals and a final.
November 2nd 2011 @ 12:34pm
Al said | November 2nd 2011 @ 12:34pm | Report comment
I would like to see the champions of each league qualify for this tournament and no one else, as it was in the past. Why should a 4th placed team in England or Germany be playing in the “Champions” League? The reintroduction of the Cup Winners Cup would be a nice touch too, might make teams from other countries actually care about their cup compeitions like the English do with the FA Cup.
November 2nd 2011 @ 11:19pm
Tony said | November 2nd 2011 @ 11:19pm | Report comment
The 4th placed team in those leagues such as last years premier league ( Arsenal ) is usually a world class team that would win any league in Europe bar La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga without a doubt. Leaving out Arsenal one of the world’s biggest footballing brands would be a farce in itself.
The current system works well, you have 6 games to sort yourself out- not overly long but not short either. Then it’s home and away from the final 16 to the cup final.
Having just the league champions would work if there was great parity throughout Europe. This year that would leave the following clubs out of the competition – Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Internazionale just to name a few.
November 2nd 2011 @ 12:39pm
eddylfc said | November 2nd 2011 @ 12:39pm | Report comment
I agree with you but let’s look at it another way: the small teams need the money to develop and playing in UEFA Champions League brings them a lot of money. It’s a neat way of distributing the wealth – maybe not equally but at least they get a piece of the pie.
November 2nd 2011 @ 1:08pm
Brian said | November 2nd 2011 @ 1:08pm | Report comment
You can change formats but essentially mismatches will continue whilst the gaps are so huge. Barca & Real have no interest in the CL until at least February.
Simple knockout is not feasible becuase of the TV money lost if teams get knocked out in one game. I do agree that the groups should occur when there are only 16 left so we get some better games
November 2nd 2011 @ 1:32pm
phil osopher said | November 2nd 2011 @ 1:32pm | Report comment
I dont know, knockout competitions dont necessarily give you the two best teams fighting it out. All formats have their advanatges and disadvantages, and I think the current format is more likely to produce the 1 v 2 result more than a knockout will. But the real problem you’re citing with uneven contests is due to this democratic approach of the best teams from all competitions, which inherently delivers uneven contests, like the world cup does. The UCL is based pretty much on the world cup format, and no one complains about that. The group stage points format would be far more interesting if the UCL was in fact the best teams in europe on ranking. At current it is not. Then each group stage would be more like the group Man City are in, which is a real serious contest from the get go. That’s why I like the idea of a euro super league. You’re right, football is only interesting when its a serious close contest, otherwise its a bit of a yawn to me, and I love the game make no mistake about that. But the serious contests need to happen more often I think, then I’d be subscribing for sure. I dropped my EPL subscription due to too many dull games.
November 2nd 2011 @ 2:46pm
Steve said | November 2nd 2011 @ 2:46pm | Report comment
This article is a massive fail ever heard of APOEL, the UCL is not only there to accommodate the bigger clubs, its about the smaller clubs having a chance to go head to head with the bigger clubs and a chance for the smaller clubs to make much needeD revenue.
November 2nd 2011 @ 3:15pm
Johnno said | November 2nd 2011 @ 3:15pm | Report comment
i have an option and i am thinking of sending the idea to UEFA for a new tournament model. i agree with steve theory to of champions league in number increasing long term will help euro club football financially for smaller clubs and spreading the awareness of soccer.
i have an idea for UEFA champions league model.
40 teams(up from 32)
8 groups of 5 teams play each team in group 1 times so that means you get 2 home and 2 away matches.
round of 16 becomes a 1 match knockout home team in other words for R16 is based on 1st in group vs 2nd in group
then Q/F last 8 revert back to 2 leg play off
same in S/Final
then grand final a 1 match knockout like currently
All group matches will be tough and tension and on edge like in say the rugby world cup group or soccer world cup group.
current model in group stages a team can lose 2 or even 3 game sand still make it. the current model rewards mediocrity yin the group stages to much.
November 2nd 2011 @ 3:48pm
Brian said | November 2nd 2011 @ 3:48pm | Report comment
Too short for the marketing men there’s only 5 games to get to the QF. I would suggest keeping 32 and having 4 groups of 8 with each team playing 7 ganes and then home ground advantage in the R16. This way the entire tournament stays exactly the same duration as now – 13 Matchdays
Overall I agree teams should play just once in the 1st phase to encourage more upsets and have more interesting matchups.