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European Cup reform


villa_shere

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Champions League may have 64 clubs & Europa League scrapped

European football's governing body Uefa is considering ditching the Europa League in favour of extending the Champions League from 32 to 64 teams.

"We're discussing it. We will make a decision in 2014. Nothing is decided yet," Uefa president Michel Platini told French newspaper Ouest-France.

It means seven English clubs and five Scottish teams could qualify for European football's elite competition.

Uefa are looking at changing the format of European competitions from 2015.

"There is an ongoing debate to determine what form the European competitions will have between 2015 and 2018," added Platini.

The former France international said he was not worried by talk of Europe's richest clubs forming a competition to rival the Champions League.

"It's a question that is regularly brought up," he said.

"I can't see how it could work outside the Uefa framework. Who will referee them? In what stadiums will they play?"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20523405 (short forming links changed?)

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Problem with the UEFA Cup is it has far too many games and teams in.

If they were to merge imagine the excitement if you were to host a Milan or Barca etc.

Problem with the CL is that it has expanded to far and with TV revenue they will never shrink it.

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The champions league in its current state works, they shouldn't be meddling with it, while the only really criticism of the Europa League is that by trying to replicate the CL, they actually made it tiresome, No teams that enter it actually want to compete, simply because of the amount of games, if they returned it to a traditional two leg un-seeded knock out tournament then they would bring alittle more excitement back to the competition.

if they merge the two it'll be a disaster. cannot see it working.

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one things for sure, whatever they do it'll be to make more money yest labelled as being for the fans

the CL has killed football IMO, the money involved has created haves and have nots, bring back the days when the champions competed and it was straight knockout and an english league where a team who finished 8th the year before could buy 2/3 well scouted gems and compete for the league rather than spending £200m to finish 6th...

i cant wait for the red top / sky wankfest about the challenge for 7th place

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Sounds like a horrible idea.

The Champions League is pretty good at the moment, you can't argue for it to be downsized because it'd never happen. But to double the size of the competition would only dilute the quality. There would be no more Madrid, Man City, Dortmund and Ajax groups , instead we'd have to watch Everton slug it out with Bologna. That said, it would make reaching the competition more achievable and I dont think the barrier to entry would be as high as it currently is.

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There was nothing wrong with the old formats; European Cup (for Champions), UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup.

The proposed reform is just another nail in the coffin for the game, in my opinion.

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There was nothing wrong with the old formats; European Cup (for Champions), UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup.

The proposed reform is just another nail in the coffin for the game, in my opinion.

The fact that the UEFA cup was usually the most exciting and glamorous competition was probably what UEFA thought was wrong with the old formats. In fact it was definitely what UEFA thought was wrong with the old formats.

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they shouldnt, but at the same time why should the winners of the champions league get so much?

why should man city get more for taking part in the champions league, being shit and finishing bottom of their group, than liverpool / spurs / newcastle would for winning the europa league?

im of the belief that champions league prize money is a cancer for football

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Predicted it a few years back, here on VT.

UEFA has reached the point where the only way they can grow their TV revenue is by eating into the PL's. And this is what the plan is designed to do. By making it top 7, they effectively allow the top clubs in the big countries to treat the league as a reserve competition, only bringing the stars out for certain critical games or if a decent title challenge is shaping up.

With that in mind, what I envision:

* Clubs qualifying will be split into a top 32 (Champions League First Division, perhaps? contesting groups A-H) and a lower 32 (Champions League Second Division? in groups I-P) based on UEFA ranking with slight adjustments due to domestic finish. 40 of 64 advance to the knockout stages as follows:

1st knockout round: winners of second division groups vs. second of second division groups (eight eliminated)

2nd knockout round: remaining clubs placed into pools of eight by coefficient; top pool drawn against bottom pool, second pool against third pool

and so forth...

* The Europa League group stages live on as the second division, but still with a chance of running the gauntlet to be crowned Champions of Europe; additionally performing well in the second division and doing well enough domestically to qualify the next year may get you promoted into the first division. These changes then make it important to treat the second division with respect.

* Second division clubs receive a half share of the media pool money.

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