CL Prestige

[mike_l]

Just been reading some old comments debating the diminishing prestige of the Europa league, in the AVB thread, obvs... It got me to thinking about the CL and it struck me, money aside, surely this competition has also been hit by a major drop in prestige? Not on the surface as obviously it's the biggest competition a side can win and the financial rewards just for being there are huge, BUT...

It's the Champions League, ironic that when only Champions were included it was known as the European Cup, now it's the CL and teams as low as fifth in their league have been admitted, and now a position in it has been allocated to the Europa League winners to try and add glamour to that, a competition that has seen the likes of Ipswich Town and Millwall compete in it from The Championship in the not too distant past.

I'm sure some will dismiss this as a daft thread, but is the CL now simply prestigious by default? Was it more glamorous when to be the best side in Europe you had to actually be the best side in your league and then beat the best sides from the other leagues?

 

[dontcallme]

I think the problem is the wealth is all in a couple of leagues.

There was a time the likes of Ajax could compete in the European Cup through a very strong youth system but now they lose their players to stronger leagues before they get to achieve anything at Ajax.

All the wealth is through the TV deals which has resulted in Spanish, English, German and Italian sides for the most part dominating. In order to have the strongest competition they have to put more teams from the stronger nations into it.

If it was the original format Then Bayern, Man City, Atletico, PSG and whoever won the Italian league would be in the CL with champions of weaker nations.

Then the EL would have Chelsea, Utd (not this season though), Arsenal, Barcelona, Real Madrid etc. The EL would be a much stronger competition then the CL.

 

[Gbspurs]

There is too much club power to make any changes to the CL.

UEFA need to find a way to make the Europa more appealing. I would suggest the following (not that any of it will happen).

1. Play the Europa games on a Tuesday and all CL games on a Wednesday?
2. CL teams are unable to drop into Europa
3. No qualifying for teams of countries with a top 6 league co-efficient
4. More qualifying for lower ranked teams meaning less fodder makes it through to the groups.
5. fewer, larger groups with each team only playing each other once with venue to be balloted (each team must play the same amount of home and away games though).
6. 1 less knock out round
7. rebrand it away from a league back to a cup (Europa Cup)
8. no place for runners up in domestic cups/Fair play winners

Only off the cuff suggestions and the logistics may not work but it's needs sorting out.

 

[mike_l]

I liked when there was a Cup Winner's Cup too, though it always seemed daft that in England winning the more prestigious cup (FA) got you into the less prestigious competition (Cup Winners).

 

[sebcole]

Well its still the top comp, thats it - nothing above it - so it takes all the spotlight.

Maybe they should make the platinum champions league as soon as four seperate clubs win the champions league in a given period- then they can have mini tournament for godly glory.