rocksolid Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 The Champions League has pretty well lost its novelty to me as well. To me, it's all about the expansion of the tournament i.e. introducing fourth-placed teams, that has made it so much less of a spectacle. But to be honest, what alternative is there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Spanky Rodriguez Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 to be honest, what alternative is there? If it was up to me i would make it that only the winners of the domestic leagues in Europe were allowed to play in the Champions league and it would be a straight knock out tournament from the start. This would mean that it would be possible for teams like Juventus to be drawn against the Albanian champions and so on. I would then revert back to the old style UEFA cup where the teams who finish 2nd, 3rd, and perhaps even 4th and 5th in some leagues were involved in a straight knock out tournament. Hopefully this would take the UEFA cup back to the days when it was actually a meaningful competition. This is what i would propose anyway. Does anybody agree or have any other ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monster Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 Watching Rangers last night was an embarrassment. They had one shot on goal and stole a result and will now maybe even go through as Inter will send a second string to Castle Greyskull. Imagine that lot of pish in the last 16? The game when Barca beat Panathanikos 5-0 was an awesome sight...a right/left/header hat-trick from E'to and the genius of Ronaldinho and Messi to enjoy. There have been some stinkers though. I wouldn't even watch games with Juve, Bayern, or AC Milan..three of the most boring defensive teams in Europe. Ayr 2 Raith 1 on tuesday was sheer entertainment. Honest! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin M Posted November 24, 2005 Author Share Posted November 24, 2005 If it was up to me i would make it that only the winners of the domestic leagues in Europe were allowed to play in the Champions league and it would be a straight knock out tournament from the start. This would mean that it would be possible for teams like Juventus to be drawn against the Albanian champions and so on. I would then revert back to the old style UEFA cup where the teams who finish 2nd, 3rd, and perhaps even 4th and 5th in some leagues were involved in a straight knock out tournament. Hopefully this would take the UEFA cup back to the days when it was actually a meaningful competition. This is what i would propose anyway. Does anybody agree or have any other ideas? I agree. I'd maybe allow two in from the top nations, but making it a knock-out tournament again would make for more exciting games. I definitely think that having too many teams from the same nation makes it boring - as I pointed out above if Everton had qualified we'd have had a quarter of the Premiership playing in this years tournament. That's definitely too much, and I think making it much more open would make for more exciting games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
South Lanarkshire Jag Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 some of the games are good but others are so one sided its boring but would you prefer a champions league without anderlecht or rosenborg probably not Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David W Posted November 26, 2005 Share Posted November 26, 2005 You couldn't just revert back to only Champions qualifiying now, the UEFA cup would be miles better!! At the end of the day, like any cup competition, the excitement starts later in the tournament. A boring game like Man U vs Villareal is only boring if you can't appreciate how good defensively Villareal were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin M Posted November 26, 2005 Author Share Posted November 26, 2005 You couldn't just revert back to only Champions qualifiying now, the UEFA cup would be miles better!! At the end of the day, like any cup competition, the excitement starts later in the tournament. A boring game like Man U vs Villareal is only boring if you can't appreciate how good defensively Villareal were. I appreciate games like that enough David - but I would prefer to be thrilled by a game on TV than just appreciate it. There's a big difference between the appreciation that a dedicated football fan has, and a much more general excitement factor that gets everybody talking. At the moment I feel the Champions League doesn't have that, and I think it did have it a few years ago. It's not that game in isolation that has been "boring", it's the tournament in general. I still reckon that the format could be changed (even back to less teams as it was in 99 when Man U won it) to give more exciting games earlier in the tournament. But I think there's a much more general point, really with what BA said, that the amount of football on TV means that there is less excitement about it. Maybe that means I'm in agreement with you, but I might have reached the stage where when it comes to watching football on TV I'm not really interested in mere appreciation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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