Originally posted on 20/2/10
European football qualification requirements
In a week where a playoff for the 4th Champions League spot in England has been brought up and it was announced that from 2011-2012, only the Scottish champion will get a crack at the Champions League, and even then after going through 3 qualification rounds, you have to ask, what has happened to the competition that was revamped to prevent elitism in European club football?
Initially, the format for the European Cup was to include the champions of each league in Europe from the previous season, as well as the current holders if they were not already in it. This format allowed truly the best teams in Europe to test themselves against each other, and allowed tournaments such as the Cup Winners Cup and UEFA Cup to flourish, with big teams who'd finished 2nd in their league contesting this. This was a perfectly fair format for everyone, as it allowed the smaller teams to get a crack at Europe, with teams like Aberdeen and Dundee United doing well. However, it was changed to the current Champions League format, where, based on UEFA's good old coefficients rating, up to four teams from a country can qualify. So in reality, the 4th best team in England or Spain can play in the Champions league. Seems a bit unfair to me. As such, the UEFA cup's popularity has declined such that it has became the same format as the CL, and the Cup Winner's Cup has been disbanded altogether.
Seeing that the 7th best team in England could potentially make it to the Champions League was the final straw for me however, as this has completely undermined the point of the competition. Such a format will never happen thankfully, but that it was even thought of is cause for concern. As is Scotland, a country which in the last 7 years has seen two clubs reach European finals, and seen many a venture into Europe past christmas. The Scottish champions, whoever they may be, do not deserve to play 3 qualifiers to get to the Champions League. The system has declined and became so elitist that it has descended into farce, as everyone simply craves the easy money of the Champions League, and no-one seems to notice that limiting the places available would increase domestic competition, and boost the status of the Europa League (or whatever it may be called).
My proposed system follows:
UEFA has 53 national associations which fall under its jurisdiction. If you were to take the champions from each league, you would have 53 teams which could split up thus:
12 groups of 4, 1 group of 5
Have each team play each other home and away, as is the current format.
Have the top two teams in each group go through, giving you 26 teams.
To get to a last 32, the remaining 6 places go to the runners-up in their group who have the best points to games ratio. If teams are tied, go to goal difference etc, the basic tie-breaking rules applying.
The last 32 will be played knock-out, home and away, as is the current format of the Europa League after christmas.
Does this not seem awfully simple? And get back to the whole point of the European Cup, that it is contested for by Europe's best individual teams, rather than the best countries' teams?
The Cup Winner's Cup could be reinstate to allow clubs a further opportunity, though there could be problems if teams are already in another competition. Someone else could work that out.
As for the UEFA Cup, 64 teams, the 53 runners-up of the UEFA league plus the 12 best 3rd placed teams going by the poxy coefficient ratings. This would allow the UEFA Cup to regain some form of prestige, and make all domestic leagues much more exciting, as winning the league would be much more beneficial, rather than being able to finish 4th and still get in to Europe's premier competition.
This will never happen obviously, as the money involved will make the big teams too afraid to risk giving it up, but it would be better for football.
No comments:
Post a Comment