How to fix the UEFA Champions League

More English Teams!!! EPL best competition haha.

Now European nights are filled with watching the elite teams of each country play each other? Sure the group stage is not knock out, but in most groups there is the equivalent of knock-out games by match 3 or 4. Basically you want an extra 1-2 knock out phases at the expense of the group stages; and for not having this feature the competition is now rubbish....despite being the exact same in nature once the group stages complete. To be honest, I am not that excited to watch St Etienne or Grasshopper...would much rather watch the PSG v Chelsea and Man City v Barca that has been recently served up, followed by 2 legs of El Clasico, Madrid Derby, Bayern v PSG that is about to be potentially served up; but each to there own i guess. It sounds like the variety you are looking for you might find in the Europa League these days. It will never change from its current format.

It's common sense. Current TV money is 1.3B euros a season. The idea put forward would mean this seasons UCL would not have Barcelona, Liverpool, Chelsea, Schalke, Roma and Porto. I reckon this season is one where the concept actually works better than most other years. On top of that each team will be playing fewer matches and the heightened risk of early knock out. The combined impact of all those clubs is enormous and with the added risk, it is perfectly reasonable that the TV value would drop by 10% or so if it is to be implemented. That's not even considering any drop in sponsorship money.

Currently there are 96 Group matches and 29 knock-out matches for a total of 125 matches. There are 90 matches before the Group Stage, but I doubt these matches would generate significant TV revenue. For some of the early matches crowds were less than 500 in the stadium. With my revised system there would be also be 125 matches when the Champions from the Top 20 leagues get involved but all the 125 matches are part of a 2-leg knock-out which generate far more Tv revenue than group matches. There would be 86 matches - again all 2 leg knock-out - before the Champions from the Top 20 leagues get involved. If they wanted to have a competition for teams that fail to win the league title keep the Europa League same as the old Uefa Cup was for teams that weren't Champions.

Why would it reduce revenue by 100-200 million Euros? Have you crunched any numbers, or just come up with a figure that sounded hysterical?

Platini might be OK with it.... However Real, barca, Man U, Chelsea etc etc would be the ones who would kick up a stink. Sometimes I think I can't wait for the breakaway super league to just happen already.

I can just imagine someone going to Michel Platini with that idea. "Sir, this will probably reduce our revenue by 100-200 million euros but hey it'll feel like we're back in the days you played football. Isn't that great sir?"

Totally agree, Bovs. Champions League should be for Champions only. I've outlined my proposed format above - only Champions of each League, Champions of each country's major domestic Cup and the prior year's Club Champion of Europe would be invited.

I like the idea of only 2 or at most 3 nations qualifying for the Champions League. For me, they should also have to qualify by WINNING something... either the League or a Cup. England and Germany already have 2 cups so if Italy and Spain follow they would decide the 3 entrants. Add the defending champion and the Europa League champion and you not only create a much more prestigious tournament, but you also create a lot more interest in competitions like the Coppa Italia or Copa del Rey. If a team qualifies twice (winning a double) one of their spots always goes to the league runner-up, even if they win the Europa League and FA Cup without finishing in the top few of the domestic league. This would help maintain the likelihood of the biggest clubs qualifying each year, while giving smaller clubs a real chance of making it into the lucrative tournament.

I wonder how many people who who are happy with the current UCL format where you have Groups and invite teams that completely failed to be even close to Champions in their country were watching European football pre-1992 where the European Cup was a knock-out tournament and only Champions were invited? The competition nowadays is a bore. Majority of the teams in the knock-out competition are the same every year. Sometimes even the fixtures are repeated year after year. I remember watching the European Cup when Nottingham Forest won back-to-back. The first they beat Malmo from Sweden, then Hamburg from Germany. What's the chance that any of these teams will ever feature in a UCL final in the current format? European nights were filled with excitement watching a variety of teams like Ajax, Leeds, Brugge, St Etienne, Grasshopper, Aston Villa, Monchengladbach, etc.. Now it's the same teams every year.

I'm pretty happy with the current format. A lot of groups nowadays have 3 decent teams capable of qualifying. Also, a lot of groups go right down to the final match day. Top spot is also high coveted as so far this season, as there is a clear advantage in playing the second leg of the knock outs at home. The one thing that bugs me are the repetitive draws after every stage. It adds to the drama and media attention, but I find it quite contrived.

How about this: only the top two teams of any national league qualify to the UEFA Champions league - then also the four semifinalists of the previous edition.

Personally I feel that the Europa League CHAMPIONS are more worthy of playing in the CHAMPIONS' LEAGUE than a team that finished fourth in the Premier League... even if the Europa League winners happened to also be relegated. Your analogy could in fact go one step further where a team from outside the EPL (Reading for example) wins the FA Cup, thus qualifying for the Europa League. They could then win the Europa League and qualfy for the Champions' League without ever even playing in the Premier League. But I'd be ok with that.

I really dont think its that bigger issue, if that unusual circumstance eventuates; than bad luck? As for the UCL itself, I love the group stages. Been some cracking games over the past few years, big sides not making it out of groups etc dont see why it needs changing.

According to what you just wrote that is the system they have implemented Top 4 plus winners of previous CL Also youre assuming a lot That the winner of the CL is going to come from England (hint - it isnt - not even close)

I reckon the Europa League should be structured like a reality TV show. Keep the current format with the 4000 teams up to the semi final stage - then when you get down to the last 4, in an unprecedented complete shock, you throw all the losers who got knocked out previously back in, so the competition can drag on endlessly. A sure fire ratings winner.

How to fix the Champions League? Get rid of the Europa League. Make the UCL 2-leg knock out, apart from Grand Final. 107 teams are invited: 53 champions of domestic leagues, 53 winners of the major Cup in each country, prior year's UCL champion. Qualifying round: League champions from Top 20 Uefa nations and previous UCL champion gets a bye. 86 other entrants randomly drawn, apart from no fixture contains teams from same country. Ro64: 43 winners from Qualifying round plus Champions of Top 20 Uefa leagues plus prior year's UCL champion In total there will be more premium matches than the current system of 96 group games moving to R016. Play only 4 fixtures every Wednesday and Thursday from September to May (winter break mid December to February), creating a premium product for broadcasters for 6 months. Knock out football is far more interesting for neutral viewers than Group matches. The negative is there is no Europa League at all, but I can't imagine that competition makes much money for Uefa.

Change it to the European Super League of 20 clubs and play a regular season, and let those teams in the ESL play a 2nd team in their domestic leagues (with restrictions about squad palyers, ie can't play in both 1st and 2nd teams). That might even out the domestic leagues and give everybody a chance to win one. It might even make the EPL interesting again. I'm sure somebody could work out a decent promotion relegation system for it.

Do they?