New qualifying rules for the champions league

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...pe/7120518.stm

England gets 3 automatic spots (no qualifying) and the 4th place English team has to play a game (2 legs?) against another team (presumably 4th place German/Italian or Spanish team)

Sounds good to me. Good chance that the dippers will not play as much champions league football.

champions league group stage will be even more of a joke now...

I want liverpool in the champions league, if United didnt £#%&! it up agasint ac milan it would have made my life time

Originally Posted by sharath

champions league group stage will be even more of a joke now...

How does that work then?

Originally Posted by koppas

How does that work then?

Maybe he means the qualifying stage? He's hard to understand at the best of times.

Originally Posted by scousebasher

Maybe he means the qualifying stage? He's hard to understand at the best of times.

Surely the potential of NOT having a fourth placed side in Europe is a good thing?

Originally Posted by scousebasher

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/foot...pe/7120518.stm

England gets 3 automatic spots (no qualifying) and the 4th place English team has to play a game (2 legs?) against another team (presumably 4th place German/Italian or Spanish team)

Sounds good to me. Good chance that the dippers will not play as much champions league football.

Don't presume it'll be against another very good side - whoever finishes 4th will have an easier passage to the group stages than ever before. they'll be paired against some icelandic team, and probably trounce them first leg making the 2nd leg a formality. So in effect, one competitive game, two tops.

I'm with Sharath on this one. It's %@#$&!s.


£#%&!ing 4th place off altogether is the only way to bring credibility back to the ECL.

It's a joke tbh. Should only be the top two or maybe three if the third place team finishes within ten points of the winners.

Should only be the winners ffs.

Originally Posted by koppas

Surely the potential of NOT having a fourth placed side in Europe is a good thing?

Very good thing, ... the fourth placed team should get nowhere near the Champions League.

Top two automatic from each country, with a qualifying round for the third placed teams to fill the rest of the places.

Competition proper should have 24 teams - 4 leagues of 6.

Winners of each league contest semi-final, - then on to final.

The format at present is £#%&!ing stupid, it's too easy to get in the competition, and it's far too easy to get out of the group stage - you only need to finish 2nd out of 4!

Originally Posted by koppas

Should only be the winners ffs.

That would my preference but there wouldn't be enough 'top teams' for the greedy bastards who run the thing.
First place = Automatically in group stage
Second place = 2nd Qualifying Round
Third place (if applicable) = 1st Qualifying Round

Originally Posted by Crumps

That would my preference but there wouldn't be enough 'top teams' for the greedy bastards who run the thing.
First place = Automatically in group stage
Second place = Qualifying
Third place (if applicable) = Pre Qualifying

Like the good old days.

Nah I think it's fair to have top three. Any of the top three in Spain, Italy and now England are capable of winning the league. The fourth team in most cases was never really capable of winning their domestic league.

Originally Posted by koppas

Like the good old days.

Yep too much crap in there. Liverpool managed to win the thing without a serious title challenge for the best part of 15 years. As it stands teams that are going for the league year in year out are at a disadvantage as more often than not they will be challenging domestically as well as in Europe so don't get the chance to rest players as some do come the latter stages.

what platini wants is 6 teams from the 40 lowest ranked uefa orginations in champions league proper... So more whipping up matches like against kiev, prague et al which will be boring to watch at the very least...

It should be done progressively not at the once... all this will serve is make those 40 country league very unbalanced as the teams in champions league will recieve millions where as other clubs in their domestic league probably won't earn 1 million. Like Rosenborg/Lyon/Donetsk/prague even more thats all..

If he has any head, he will reformat uefa cup and bring more glory to it. So that the clubs who are whipping boys now ( or will become when this reformat happens ) will be better equipped.

But platini is a muppet. A ignorant one at that. This was the man who was upset that his win in champions league will never gets it credit because of Heysel.

I have 2 words for platini : £#%&! OFF

Originally Posted by Crumps

It's a joke tbh. Should only be the top two or maybe three if the third place team finishes within ten points of the winners.

You could be on to something there. If a team scrambles into 4th 15 or 20 points off the pace they shouldn't be able to compete for the supposedly most prestigious trophy in club football the following season.

I reckon there should be a Champions League in pretty much the format that was used back in the early 90s when Marseille won it (maybe the 4 groups of 6 mentioned in this thread.)

And then there should be the European Cup as well, just for league champions. This would lead to some brilliant pub/work arguments with vermin as well. To accomodate the possible extra games (about 7 to 9 of them for the best teams to progress in each comp) we should cut the English top flight to 18 teams maximum, and field shadow teams in the League Cup (as normal.)

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

And then there should be the European Cup as well, just for league champions. This would lead to some brilliant pub/work arguments with vermin as well. To accomodate the possible extra games (about 7 to 9 of them for the best teams to progress in each comp) we should cut the English top flight to 18 teams maximum, and field shadow teams in the League Cup (as normal.)

This the least likely point to happen almost impossible...

never will premier league upset the show when its going on so well...

nor will uefa when its bringing in so much money. At least till platini is here... He wants to expand uefa competetion more, not less. If given chance he would have top 2 of all leagues so that he can get more votes from all countries.

Bring back the CWC too.

Originally Posted by sharath

what platini wants is 6 teams from the 40 lowest ranked uefa orginations in champions league proper... So more whipping up matches like against kiev, prague et al which will be boring to watch at the very least...

It should be done progressively not at the once... all this will serve is make those 40 country league very unbalanced as the teams in champions league will recieve millions where as other clubs in their domestic league probably won't earn 1 million. Like Rosenborg/Lyon/Donetsk/prague even more thats all..

Perhaps, but at least it will mean more money going into those smaller leagues, even if it's through the biggest clubs. People moan about the lack of quality of some of the smaller sides in the Champions League, but to be honest I'm getting sick of seeing the same sides play each other every season. I'd be all for a bit more diversity. I say take more places away from the bigger leagues and focus on a few more automatic places for the champions of countries like Serbia, Poland etc. It's a great competition and should involve as much of Europe as possible. I'd much rather see Red Star in the Champions League than the likes of Lazio.

Originally Posted by S/Side.Red

I'd much rather see Red Star in the Champions League than the likes of Lazio.

Yeah, me too. That team they had in '90 is part of the European Cups mythos for me.