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Fallen Out of Love with the Champions League


Estragon

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I think the problem is that the big time games lose that 'special' feeling as you know that they'll likely encounter one another again within the next few seasons. 

Take Arsenal vs Barcelona for instance. I remember about 10 years ago and it was the first time these two European powerhouses had met in Europe for a long time, possibly ever. Now I'm sick to the fucking back teeth of watching them in the last 16 every second season.

 

And it's a trend that continues through the competition. Nothing has that special one off feeling anymore until the final. 

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1 hour ago, djchapsticks said:

I think the problem is that the big time games lose that 'special' feeling as you know that they'll likely encounter one another again within the next few seasons. 

Take Arsenal vs Barcelona for instance. I remember about 10 years ago and it was the first time these two European powerhouses had met in Europe for a long time, possibly ever. Now I'm sick to the fucking back teeth of watching them in the last 16 every second season.

 

And it's a trend that continues through the competition. Nothing has that special one off feeling anymore until the final. 

Very much this. I struggle to separate the Manchester Utd V Barcelona UCL Finals from a few years ago yet can clearly recount the Uefa Cup QF ties between the two sides in 1984! Like Cloughie said; "I love Sunday lunch but not every day and twice on Sundays"

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23 hours ago, D.A.F.C said:

It should be the champions of every league plus the previous winners. No dropping unto UEFA league.

Straight home and away knockout.

It's far too biased towards money.

that would be great only insofar as we could all laugh at arsenal with their noses pressed to the glass,watching the feasting beyond...

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I watched the final last season. That was it.

And this is another point. I wonder what the TV revenues outwith Europe are - I would suspect they've exploded in the last 10-15 years. My petty malcontent will have absolutely no bearing on the extent to which Chelsea vs PSG is foisted upon me.


Re the Champions League, I also only watch the Final now.

As I can't be arsed paying for TV, I quickly lost interest as soon as the Champs League moved from ITV.

Scotland internationals are in the same boat.

I occasionally watch Match of the Day, but in the last year I've even given up on that.

I reckon it can't be long until I'm completely done with football. I always wondered how old boys got to this stage. I thought it was impossible you could give up on football. Now I know.
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Same as it is the now, then.



It would be worse. Could you ever see anyone other than the Champions of England, Spain and Germany making the semis every single season? With the French and Italian sides also getting there. Their routes up to that point would just be an utter procession unless they played each other early on, which would just kill the tournament as you'd know whoever won the head to heads would go on and win the whole thing.
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15 minutes ago, RandomGuy. said:

It would be worse. Could you ever see anyone other than the Champions of England, Spain and Germany making the semis every single season? With the French and Italian sides also getting there. Their routes up to that point would just be an utter procession unless they played each other early on, which would just kill the tournament as you'd know whoever won the head to heads would go on and win the whole thing.

 

The point's already been made that clubs like Red Star Belgrade and Malmo reached European Cup finals.

The current system is the same huge teams playing each other regularly in a slightly different order to last time - genuinely hard to get excited about that when you've seen it dozens if times in recent memory.

It's a carve-up that has more to do with corporate business than sport.

Worst of all, it's tedious.

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If a diddy club went on a run to the semis or final or even won the competition (as has actually been done several times), then the exact same people complaining about the current format would be complaining about 'anti-football' or something instead, like when Greece or Portugal do well in international tournaments.

I personally quite enjoy seeing the best teams and the best players having a platform to compete against each other. The game would be much poorer without it and would probably be the only sport that didn't try and put their best performers against each other.

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25 minutes ago, Firhill Road said:

If a diddy club went on a run to the semis or final or even won the competition (as has actually been done several times), then the exact same people complaining about the current format would be complaining about 'anti-football' or something instead, like when Greece or Portugal do well in international tournaments.

I personally quite enjoy seeing the best teams and the best players having a platform to compete against each other. The game would be much poorer without it and would probably be the only sport that didn't try and put their best performers against each other.

You don't get anti-football in the current set up?

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1 hour ago, The OP said:

It would be interesting if the draw was more open - the rule that clubs from the same country can't meet in the group stage or the last 16 increases the repetitiveness greatly I'd imagine. 

 

This, Also every league winner should be given a by until at least the final play off round rather than having to go through the 3 QR rounds. 

ETA: actually it might be difficult doing that on the basis of 55 nations. 

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7 minutes ago, paranoid android said:

Strange that you would mention it, then.

Not when I'm trying to raise the point that there are probable double standards here. I've never used the term but other, thicker people have and do.

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