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People from far beyond Europe tune in to watch the final of the UEFA Champions League, arguably the most competitive football tournament in the world. But there’s a problem.
Not match attendance, match-fixing, suspensions, or anything like that. The problem is who is playing.
Let’s be honest, Bayern Munich’s form this year in their domestic Bundesliga has been unprecedented.
With the records for most wins and most points in a season, only losing one match, and wrapping up the title with six games to spare, it’s pretty hard to justify saying they don’t deserve to be at Wembley next Saturday.
But should they be playing Borussia Dortmund?
Granted, Dortmund registered two 1-1 draws with Bayern in the Bundesliga this year and will finish a noble second in the Bundesliga, but surely the Champions League final should be pitting the two best teams in Europe against each other, and this match-up doesn’t let that happen.
When people think of the great European clubs of the last 10 years, Barcelona is the one that comes to mind – being the highest ranked club in UEFA’s co-efficient ranking system and all.
Admittedly, Bayern ran through them in this year’s semi-finals like a Ferrari through a sponge cake, but Barcelona’s recent domestic and Champions League form is undeniably good.
Since 2003, they’ve won six La Liga titles and three Champions Leagues. This is form only a handful of clubs in Europe from the last 10 years have even come close to matching.
The sides showing the dominant domestic league form over this last 10 years, such as Inter Milan (five championships), Manchester United (six championships), and Real Madrid (four championships) are missing out on winning European titles. And this is the problem.
Since 2003, the Champions League has been won by a side who did not win their domestic league competitions on four occasions. This is four occasions too many.
In Milan’s successful Champions League seasons of 2003 and 2007, they finished third and fourth in their respective Serie A campaigns.
In 2005 Liverpool finished a disappointing fifth, and last year Chelsea claimed the silverware while only managing sixth in their Premier League run.
Now this may be put down to ‘they were the better side on the day’, but in a league of Champions as it is so called, is that really an excuse?
The result is the best sides in Europe aren’t winning, or even necessarily getting the chance to challenge, for what should be the highest accolade in European football.
How can UEFA claim to have one of the most prestigious tournaments on the planet when it proclaims a team that finished sixth in its domestic competition ‘Champions of Europe’?
Clearly that’s not the case, as it would seem there are at least five better teams just in the English Premier League, without even looking abroad.
It is very enjoyable to see the underdog over-perform, but when it starts happening so often that it compromises the tournament, change is needed.
UEFA has a very in-depth, complicated mathematical system for ranking every club side in Europe, called the ‘co-efficient’. Instead of a completely random draw, why not base the group stage draw, and even the knockout matches, on this?
Separate the best clubs by as much as possible, with the intention of having them meet in the final. Barcelona and Bayern are currently ranked one and two respectively, and everyone would get the final they wanted.
This principal has worked in the tennis for years. The National Hockey League does it in the North American Ice Hockey competition after every round to give the top ranked teams in each conference the best chance of meeting each other for the Stanley Cup.
All the pot luck element UEFA insists on employing does is get a few more cameras turn up when they announce the draw. Consequently, the competition is compromised when we have two champion sides playing off in a semi-final.
I hope that come the 2013 final, for the sake of the Champions League, Bayern come good.
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