Champions League

[kumnio]

One of the podcasts I listen to mentioned this, the last 16 teams all come from the European ‘big 5’ leagues this season, had it not been for Ajax last season, it would have been the same.

UEFA have managed, with the obvious help of the clubs who are profiting from it, to screw over everyone else. 

The chances of Dutch, Belgian, Portuguese, Turkish etc etc clubs of having a good run, are massively diminished, and get worse every year. 

Football is well on the way to being ruined beyond all belief. Still, some tv fan can watch Liverpool from Aberdeen, or Barca from Stockholm. 

[vanderark14]

47 minutes ago, kumnio said:

One of the podcasts I listen to mentioned this, the last 16 teams all come from the European ‘big 5’ leagues this season, had it not been for Ajax last season, it would have been the same.

UEFA have managed, with the obvious help of the clubs who are profiting from it, to screw over everyone else. 

The chances of Dutch, Belgian, Portuguese, Turkish etc etc clubs of having a good run, are massively diminished, and get worse every year. 

Football is well on the way to being ruined beyond all belief. Still, some tv fan can watch Liverpool from Aberdeen, or Barca from 

It's not even a competition or sport anymore. It's a tv show

Edited December 14, 2019 by vanderark14

[dan cake]

last years proposals (knocked back) would have seen it possible for only 2 teams outside the "big 5" to qualify for the group stages. They also want champions league games at the weekend with domestic leagues to played midweek, once enough clubs are American, Arab or Chinese owned it'll happen

Edited December 14, 2019 by dan cake

[vanderark14]

19 minutes ago, dan cake said:

last years proposals (knocked back) would have seen it possible for only 2 teams outside the "big 5" to qualify for the group stages. They also want champions league games at the weekend with domestic leagues to played midweek, once enough clubs are American, Arab or Chinese owned it'll happen

I believe it will become the top 5 only whilst the rest get to play in the Europa and whatever the new competition is called.

 

[ParisInAKilt]

1 hour ago, vanderark14 said:

It's not even a competition or sport anymore. It's a tv show

Correct. Or it’s definitely heading that way. 
it’s been boring for years.

Soon as Messi retires I’ll happily not watch it anymore, for all I do now anyway. 

It won’t change either, club fans don’t matter anymore, it’s got a global audience 

[kumnio]

10 minutes ago, ParisInAKilt said:

Soon as Messi retires I’ll happily not watch it anymore, for all I do now anyway. 

Not being in Scotland, so not having easy access to tv fitba, you really don’t actually miss it. I’d guess you might be similar. 

Ive only seen Dundee, the cup final, and a Scotland game on tv, and only watched them due to obvious connection. 

[Stu101]

3 hours ago, vanderark14 said:

I believe it will become the top 5 only whilst the rest get to play in the Europa and whatever the new competition is called.

The current consulation is on how to better exploit the Chinese and Indian markets. That's the big focus, rather than doing anything to improve the competition. Plus UEFA wont do anything to upset the big 24 clubs- too scared that they would just break away.

I probably go to about 30 games a season, and watch 2 or 3 a weekend on TV. Cant remember the last Champions league game I watched.

[WCTA]

Scottish fitba’ “fans” will love this news though. 

[dan cake]

3 hours ago, Stu101 said:

The current consulation is on how to better exploit the Chinese and Indian markets.

Juventus currently desperate to change traditional Italian late afternoon/evening kick off times (due to temperatures) to midday for these markets 

Edited December 14, 2019 by dan cake

[vanderark14]

5 hours ago, Stu101 said:

The current consulation is on how to better exploit the Chinese and Indian markets. That's the big focus, rather than doing anything to improve the competition. Plus UEFA wont do anything to upset the big 24 clubs- too scared that they would just break away.

I probably go to about 30 games a season, and watch 2 or 3 a weekend on TV. Cant remember the last Champions league game I watched.

They really have destroyed the game. 

[ParisInAKilt]

9 hours ago, kumnio said:

Not being in Scotland, so not having easy access to tv fitba, you really don’t actually miss it. I’d guess you might be similar. 

Ive only seen Dundee, the cup final, and a Scotland game on tv, and only watched them due to obvious connection. 

Yeah similar, watched the first leg of the Barcelona v Liverpool game because my mate had an account to watch it live. Otherwise I’ll try and watch Scotland games but don’t bother with full club games anymore. 

If I was back in Scotland I’d go watch amateur games with my Dad, least it’s competitive 

[Jim Beem]

On 12/14/2019 at 7:49 AM, vanderark14 said:

It's not even a competition or sport anymore. It's a tv show

We were speaking about this after the Arbroath game yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I was gutted when United were relegated and even more so when we continually fucked up promotion but there has been something refreshing about the competitiveness of the Championship despite the lack of quality.  Weirdly, Ive probably followed United to more away games since we got emptied from the top league. Obviously  I’m desperate we get out of this league but going in to every single game where you could win, lose or draw is the very definition of sport 

[ParisInAKilt]

4 minutes ago, Jim Beem said:

We were speaking about this after the Arbroath game yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I was gutted when United were relegated and even more so when we continually fucked up promotion but there has been something refreshing about the competitiveness of the Championship despite the lack of quality.  Weirdly, Ive probably followed United to more away games since we got emptied from the top league. Obviously  I’m desperate we get out of this league but going in to every single game where you could win, lose or draw is the very definition of sport 

My mates a united fan and has said similar, same with a Hibs fan when they got relegated. 
Fair play to the fans who follow teams home & away, year after year who generally never win or have a chance of winning anything. 

[vanderark14]

31 minutes ago, Jim Beem said:

We were speaking about this after the Arbroath game yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I was gutted when United were relegated and even more so when we continually fucked up promotion but there has been something refreshing about the competitiveness of the Championship despite the lack of quality.  Weirdly, Ive probably followed United to more away games since we got emptied from the top league. Obviously  I’m desperate we get out of this league but going in to every single game where you could win, lose or draw is the very definition of sport 

I felt the same about highland league football before I moved south. Almost every game was competitive. With the exception of fort William and strathspey at that time no result was a guaranteed win. With cove moving up its even more competitive. 

A few lads I know down here much prefer the championship to the EPL. They support reading. 

If I were to go to games down here I'd go to aldershot in the conference league. Cant be bother with the EPl. 

[McTeeko]

Have to agree with the comments above. An Arab all my life but got fed up years ago of not being in a competitive league (this is before we went down). Wee man started training with Edinburgh City youths and we started going to their games in the season they went up through the pyramid system. Since then we’ve been regulars home and away and loving it. The wee intimate grounds, standing with the club officials on the terracing, the ex-chairman driving the supporters bus, and actually being in a league where there is genuine hope of actually winning it is massive. Booked up for the night for Elgin away on January 4th. 
 

Champions League doesn’t even register with me these days. 

[dan cake]

7 minutes ago, McTeeko said:

Have to agree with the comments above. An Arab all my life but got fed up years ago of not being in a competitive league (this is before we went down). Wee man started training with Edinburgh City youths and we started going to their games in the season they went up through the pyramid system. Since then we’ve been regulars home and away and loving it. The wee intimate grounds, standing with the club officials on the terracing, the ex-chairman driving the supporters bus, and actually being in a league where there is genuine hope of actually winning it is massive. Booked up for the night for Elgin away on January 4th

And only 2 promotions off playing derbies at tynecastle 

[Jim Beem]

15 minutes ago, McTeeko said:

Have to agree with the comments above. An Arab all my life but got fed up years ago of not being in a competitive league (this is before we went down). Wee man started training with Edinburgh City youths and we started going to their games in the season they went up through the pyramid system. Since then we’ve been regulars home and away and loving it. The wee intimate grounds, standing with the club officials on the terracing, the ex-chairman driving the supporters bus, and actually being in a league where there is genuine hope of actually winning it is massive. Booked up for the night for Elgin away on January 4th. 
 

Champions League doesn’t even register with me these days. 

Also worth mentioning, before we went down our continual tormenting of Rangers on and off the park was enjoyable. 

[Farcity]

Just now, Jim Beem said:

Also worth mentioning, before we went down our continual tormenting of Rangers on and off the park was enjoyable. 

Ciftci at Ibrox. That was beautiful. 

[Jim Beem]

1 minute ago, Farcity said:

Ciftci at Ibrox. That was beautiful. 

😂 I was right behind the goal. Absolute mayhem. Ciftci was completely unhinged but did give us some great moments. 

[McTeeko]

12 minutes ago, dan cake said:

And only 2 promotions off playing derbies at tynecastle 

 

5 minutes ago, Jim Beem said:

Also worth mentioning, before we went down our continual tormenting of Rangers on and off the park was enjoyable. 

Both correct 😆

[ScotlandWintheWorldCup]

Shame the fans can't have a say in how they would like UEFA comps to be organized.  Think the fans all across Europe would be for Champions League to be the Champs only!!

The ridiculous situation was summed up last year by having two finalists who havent't been Champions for 29 &58 years respectively!!

In the old format, that extremely limited Tottenham side would have been knocked out and we could have had a proper European final

Could it not be something like this

Champions only in Champions League

Cup Winners Cup comes back but its played in separate weeks, so if the team is champions as well they get to play in CL & CWC (means a quintuple is possible lol)

Europa League can be where the teams finishing 2-6 in their leagues play qualifying to get to a group stage

 

The champions league and the CWC should be straight knockout.

 

This way the CL & CWC get proper European champs and the Europa League can be all the 27 games between European giant clubs where endless games meaning nothing and keep the money men and broadcasters happy.

 

So all of us who actually support teams can enjoy the ups and downs of our teams in Euro campaigns and the indian and Chinese markets  and Agnelli get huge numbers of Europa league games to get excited about.

[Tartan_McCole]

9 hours ago, ScotlandWintheWorldCup said:

Shame the fans can't have a say in how they would like UEFA comps to be organized.  Think the fans all across Europe would be for Champions League to be the Champs only!!

Aye, fans of teams in the wee diddy leagues like Scotland. If you're in one of the top leagues then there's not a chance anyone has any appetite for that.

[sbcmfc]

On 12/15/2019 at 9:24 AM, Jim Beem said:

We were speaking about this after the Arbroath game yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I was gutted when United were relegated and even more so when we continually fucked up promotion but there has been something refreshing about the competitiveness of the Championship despite the lack of quality.  Weirdly, Ive probably followed United to more away games since we got emptied from the top league. Obviously  I’m desperate we get out of this league but going in to every single game where you could win, lose or draw is the very definition of sport 

 

On 12/15/2019 at 9:31 AM, ParisInAKilt said:

My mates a united fan and has said similar, same with a Hibs fan when they got relegated. 
Fair play to the fans who follow teams home & away, year after year who generally never win or have a chance of winning anything. 

Always think that would be the silver lining if Motherwell got relegated, getting to play some different teams, and a couple of new grounds.

The worry would be not getting back up, and the damage to the infrastructure and finances. From a fan point of view, never thought it would be the worst thing short term.