banana Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 http://www.espnfc.us/uefa-champions-league/story/2835835/champions-league-format-change-proposed-reports UEFA is set to be asked to radically overhaul the Champions League's format to allow for more games between the continent's elite clubs across two "mini super leagues," according to multiple reports in England. Thoughts? Would make it even more boring and stacked towards ensuring even the smaller big clubs have ~zero chance of winning it imo. Blatant power and cash centralising maneuver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppino Impastato Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 Yeah its the way of the world sadly. I wouldn't call it boring just now though I think it's excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FairWeatherFan Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 I found this a bit of a strange one after all the recent speculation. Thought it was about securing more guaranteed games for the clubs from the big nations. Whereas this could exclude quite a few from the group stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bishop Briggs Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 http://www.espnfc.us/uefa-champions-league/story/2835835/champions-league-format-change-proposed-reports Thoughts? Would make it even more boring and stacked towards ensuring even the smaller big clubs have ~zero chance of winning it imo. Blatant power and cash centralising maneuver. The big English clubs play too many games already. Following Man Utd's example a few years ago, they could pull out of the League or FA Cup or both. It's a step towards an elite league with the big clubs from Spain, Germany, England, Italy and France. That's where the big money is. Television and merchandising revenues across the world would be massive. Look how boxing is raking in the cash from pay-per-view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 It seems a very strange set of proposals. Essentially they're suggesting 32 clubs playing an Elimination Round, followed by 2 Supergroups of 8 playing home-and-away (14 games). Unless the top clubs think they're guaranteed to win those Elimination ties, they could end-up worse than currently. Even if the Supergroups were only followed by Semi-Finals - which would mean numerous 'dead-rubbers' - they'd also have to find 4 more midweeks to accommodate the games. EDIT: Incidentally it seems EPL clubs want things to stay as they are. Of course it's mainly being inspired by Italian, German and smaller Spanish clubs who are trying to find a way to react to EPL's burgeoning TV revenues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DAVIDB69 Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 It seems a very strange set of proposals. Essentially they're suggesting 32 clubs playing an Elimination Round, followed by 2 Supergroups of 8 playing home-and-away (14 games). Unless the top clubs think they're guaranteed to win those Elimination ties, they could end-up worse than currently. Even if the Supergroups were only followed by Semi-Finals - which would mean numerous 'dead-rubbers' - they'd also have to find 4 more midweeks to accommodate the games. EDIT: Incidentally it seems EPL clubs want things to stay as they are. Of course it's mainly being inspired by Italian, German and smaller Spanish clubs who are trying to find a way to react to EPL's burgeoning TV revenues. I had a feeling this would be the format the knock out round will get shot of the small teams like Celtic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonMan Posted March 24, 2016 Share Posted March 24, 2016 Not sure too much reform is really needed for the CL. It's generally a solid competition. The group stages can sometimes be a bit dull, but the knockout stages are mostly entertaining and have some great games. With talks of this, and potential super leagues though, I get the impression that UEFA eventually want to have us in a position where European competition's focused on the biggest teams constantly playing each other. Which is disappointing, since part of the allure of big games is that they don't happen all that often...even if Arsenal are unlucky enough to end up against Barca every other year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 It's not UEFA who are pushing for change. UEFA would probably be quite happy with the status quo, but they're having to suggest reforms in order to placate the big clubs and avoid a (possible, but unlikely) breakaway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bully Wee Villa Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 If there was a breakaway, what action could UEFA take? I remember Di Stefano was banned by FIFA briefly for playing in a Colombian "rebel league". If they wanted to be really arsey could they ban players from playing for their country? Or seek to fine football associations who allowed their home nations to televise the event like how they pressure teams not to play on CL days now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 As far as I know, they would be able to (with the co-operation of FIFA) ban the players from playing international football. The players' registrations with UEFA/FIFA would also be null and void, so any player could move freely from a rebel club to a non-rebel club without any footballing punishment (though there may be legal repercussions for the player). Realistically, I don't think this is a scenario that the clubs or UEFA want, so it's all a big game of brinksmanship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dunning1874 Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 While I'm sure it'll never actually get to that stage, if you did have the scenario of banning players from international football then while it would put some players off moving to those clubs, the clubs involved would be delighted that they didn't have to release players and they'd still probably have the money to convince players to chuck international football. In one sense you'd be doing the clubs a favour, when really you want to punish them far more heavily than you punish their players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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