UEFA Champions League Reforms from 2024

[cjsimba]

I made this point in the Super League thread but I feel like it needs it's own discussion.

Im really surprised there hasn’t been more talk in the media on how awful and anti-competitive the new proposals for the UCL are.

It may be Super League-lite compared to the main one, but it is a million miles away from being a preferred alternative.

Take an example.

Season 24/25:
Chelsea finish 7th but get a UCL spot due to doing well in Europe last 5 years.

Season 25/26
Chelsea finish 7th but again get a UCL spot because their coefficient in Europe is still high PRECISELY BECAUSE they had the opportunity to maintain/improve it by being allowed into the UCL last season.

Season 26/27
Rinse and repeat

Season 27/28
Chelsea will probably be finishing back in the top 4 and entering the UCL normally by now. All the while their coefficient is maintained just in case of any future bad seasons.

It will take 3-4 consistent seasons of poor performance domestically AND IMPORTANTLY in Europe too before these teams feel any affect. Which won’t happen as they are rich enough to solve the problems with money. Even if they don’t improve straight away, enough money will avoid any longer than 3 years of underachievement.

So basically the UCL is another form of the super league. Allowing the big clubs to never fall away from the top table. The changes were driven by the big clubs which is why they are so similar to the super league. But people seem to be thinking too much that the new UCL is a better, fairer and more competitive alternative. It’s baffling.

What do others think?

 

[mightyspur]

I think UEFA are idiots.

My preference would be there are 2 European cup competitions.

League winners of each domestic league + winner of major cup within that country, i.e. in England it is FA Cup. If same team wins both, place is given to runner up of cup.

There are 27 professional member leagues in Europe, so that gives you a competition of 54 teams, plus 1 place for the winner of the 2nd European cup competition. That 55 is reduced to 32 with a qualifying round or 2 for the lower ranked European leagues, then just follow same format as the existing CL, i.e. 8 groups of 4

Second European competition straight knockout over 2 legs with no seeding of teams, or separation based on country. Entry to comp based on finish in each European league, say runners up to 4th place (or less depending on league ranking)

 

[LeSoupeKitchen]

I made this point in the Super League thread but I feel like it needs it's own discussion.

Im really surprised there hasn’t been more talk in the media on how awful and anti-competitive the new proposals for the UCL are.

It may be Super League-lite compared to the main one, but it is a million miles away from being a preferred alternative.

Take an example.

Season 24/25:
Chelsea finish 7th but get a UCL spot due to doing well in Europe last 5 years.

Season 25/26
Chelsea finish 7th but again get a UCL spot because their coefficient in Europe is still high PRECISELY BECAUSE they had the opportunity to maintain/improve it by being allowed into the UCL last season.

Season 26/27
Rinse and repeat

Season 27/28
Chelsea will probably be finishing back in the top 4 and entering the UCL normally by now. All the while their coefficient is maintained just in case of any future bad seasons.

It will take 3-4 consistent seasons of poor performance domestically AND IMPORTANTLY in Europe too before these teams feel any affect. Which won’t happen as they are rich enough to solve the problems with money. Even if they don’t improve straight away, enough money will avoid any longer than 3 years of underachievement.

So basically the UCL is another form of the super league. Allowing the big clubs to never fall away from the top table. The changes were driven by the big clubs which is why they are so similar to the super league. But people seem to be thinking too much that the new UCL is a better, fairer and more competitive alternative. It’s baffling.

What do others think?

I don't get this either. The only interesting thing about the end of this season is the scrap for 4th. The new proposals would completely destroy that.

Once a big team is out of the title race they'd have the luxury of resting players in the PL to concentrate on the CL assuming they make it to the knockouts. They'd just need to do enough to get 7th.

 

[GutBucket]

I actually like the coefficient idea, clubs like Sevilla would get into CL more often, and everyone would take Cup Uefa and Conference league more seriously. Chelsea and City will get top 4 more times than not anyway. This helps clubs like us, Everton, Sevilla, Leicester, Villarreal etc.

 

[Marty]

The coefficient idea is one thing, but the Swiss league model literally kills an already (often) boring as hell group stage.

Ten group games and only cutting the bottom third before the knockouts begin takes away all sense of drama from the majority of the games. The only real tension is who nips into 24th on the final day. Yawn.

Top level football is really trying it's hardest to kill itself.

 

[cjsimba]

I actually like the coefficient idea, clubs like Sevilla would get into CL more often, and everyone would take Cup Uefa and Conference league more seriously. Chelsea and City will get top 4 more times than not anyway. This helps clubs like us, Everton, Sevilla, Leicester, Villarreal etc.

I take your point but personally I see it the other way. The only way a club like Spurs are going to win a title (given our lack of money compared to other elite clubs) is if one of the elite clubs mess up and have a poor season.

But now the big clubs get a get out of jail free card if that happens. So instead of Spurs taking eg. City's place in the Champions League, City would join us. Meaning that City do not get punished for their poor season, and have another shot next season. If the get out of jail free card wasn't there, City might have to re-think their transfer targets for the following year, meaning more chance of them having another poor season etc. and the gap between us and them slowly gets reduced.

The model works in Spain, Italy, Germany etc. where there are less elite clubs and they 99% of the time all qualify for the Champions League anyway. Then teams like Sevilla have a good chance of getting in too. But in the Premier League we have 6 'elite' clubs competing for 4 Champions League spots. So there are more chances for a City or Chelsea to not finish in the top 4 yet still get rewarded.

Just makes me sick thinking that we could finish a tough season, beating the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal to a top 4 spot, yet they both get to join us in the Champs League anyway because they had a good Europa league run a few seasons back...Or a season where we finished 5th just losing out on a Champs League spot to say Leicester in 4th, whilst Man Utd who finished 6th and Chelsea who finished 7th, both having poor, worse seasons than us, could both go into the Champions League ahead of us as their coefficient is better.

You would have teams like City, United and Chelsea who could go into a season knowing that the highest they need to finish to get Champions League is 7th place because they know they are 6th in the coefficient table behind Madrid, Barca, Juve, Bayern and PSG who are all shoe-ins to get in given the lack of competition in their leagues.

 

[garyhopkins]

The coefficient idea is one thing, but the Swiss league model literally kills an already (often) boring as hell group stage.

Ten group games and only cutting the bottom third before the knockouts begin takes away all sense of drama from the majority of the games. The only real tension is who nips into 24th on the final day. Yawn.

Top level football is really trying it's hardest to kill itself.

Absolutely. It's highly likely that winning just 2 or 3 of 10 games will get you into the knockout stages.

 

[hellava_tough]

I think the problem is the fact that there are only 25 to 30 'decent' teams in Europe and the hundreds of other clubs are total dross compared to them.

Big money has been a part of the game now for 30 years and this is the reality it's created.

I'm not actually against it to be honest, but I am against the facade of 'equality' and 'romance' that the likes of Uefa and pundits like Gary Neville bang on about.

The game is already a closed shop...well, almost; perhaps there's still a 2-inch gap that a smaller club could squeeze through, but it's getting smaller and smaller every season.

Fast forward 10 years. You reckon that the footballing landscape will be more equal? Or even the same as it is today? Of course not. The big clubs are going to be even bigger. With every new TV deal they get a bigger slice of the pie.

Anyway, who knows, perhaps in 20 years time the world's first trillionaire, Jeff Bezos, will just come along, set his own super league up from scratch, pay every player 2 million quid a week, stream the whole thing to 3 billion people across the planet, rake in the ad revenue and that will be that.

 

[wirE]

With the new concept of Europa Conference League, I kinda wished they go back to the old Champions League model which had the division winners and 2nd and 3rd goes to the Europa League. Or a play-off for the 2nd spot in the CL between 2nd, 3rd and 4th spot.

 

[cliff jones]

Great point well made. Clubs should have to earn it every season, for the season to follow.

I really hope this wave of protest will wash this kind of crap away, too, for the foreseeable.

 

[WalkerboyUK]

Co-efficiency needs to be completely removed.
Either you finish top 4 and get into the CL, 5-7th into the Europa Conference or whatever they call it.
If you don’t get those positions you simply don’t participate the following season.

By keeping co-efficiency and even strengthening how it works, UEFA are basically providing a guaranteed annual entry for the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, City and United. Why? Oh because they have the biggest names in their teams...

 

[Amo]

Next stop binning the two coefficient places. And changes to the proposed format.

 

[spursfan77]

Co-efficiency needs to be completely removed.
Either you finish top 4 and get into the CL, 5-7th into the Europa Conference or whatever they call it.
If you don’t get those positions you simply don’t participate the following season.

By keeping co-efficiency and even strengthening how it works, UEFA are basically providing a guaranteed annual entry for the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, City and United. Why? Oh because they have the biggest names in their teams...

Also end the dropping into the europa league for 3rd placed champions league teams. Thats just farcical and always has been.

 

[Stamford]

Its nearly as bad as the super league and no one is noticing. Very worrying

 

[Coneilly]

Personally can't get annoyed about this untill Gary Neville tells me to

 

[sebo_sek]

Also end the dropping into the europa league for 3rd placed champions league teams. Thats just farcical and always has been.

Exactly.

 

[spursfan77]

gundogan has come out saying they’re shit

 

[spursfan77]

Would probably be good news for us. Need to start to qualify for it soon though!

 

[spursfan77]

Would have benefitted the scum in the past and would do in the future

 

[slartibartfast]

Really tying themselves in knots with this shit.
How to keep it competitive whilst ensuring the same teams qualify every year?
Its a conundrum and no mistake lol.