EPL Champion League change agreed

[horseman]

On a League format with 36 teams


From 32 to 36 teams.
No more group stage.
Single league phase including all participating teams.
8 matches per team.
Two spots for the two best performing nations from the previous season.

Also strong rumour that League Cup is to be binned.

 

[unification]

Mild solace that the coefficient nonsense was rejected though.

Still, it's the thin end of the wedge. The greedier clubs and their owners get more matches.

The ESL will happen again. It's just that next time it will be UEFA sanctioned.

 

[horseman]

Mild solace that the coefficient nonsense was rejected though.

Still, it's the thin end of the wedge. The greedier clubs and their owners get more matches.

The ESL will happen again. It's just that next time it will be UEFA sanctioned.

European League on the Horizon.

with the League Cup rumoured to be culled they've taken the dream away from fans of smaller clubs, Meanwhile we have to tolerate their under 23's in a EFL competition so B teams is coming too.

Arsenal, Spurs, Man Utd fans practising their Annual 4th place celebrations for the years ahead

 

[eaststandboy]

So the "elite" teams will always progress to the later stages.

36 teams but only 8 games each, how does that work??

 

[horseman]

So the "elite" teams will always progress to the later stages.

36 teams but only 8 games each, how does that work??

there are mixed messages from Eufa...they say 8 games but then say will play 10 different teams home and away

 

[Oxymoron]

So the "elite" teams will always progress to the later stages.

36 teams but only 8 games each, how does that work??

PPG - tried and tested to be fair and above board....

 

[horseman]

there are mixed messages from Eufa...they say 8 games but then say will play 10 different teams home and away

go figure

UEFA will create four pots of nine teams, almost certainly based upon the five-year club coefficient. Each team will play a selection of 10 teams (five home, five away) from each pool to create a fixture list of roughly equal strength.

The teams in Pot 1 will draw two other clubs from Pot 1, three from Pot 2 and 3 and another two from Pot 4. Teams from the same association cannot play each other.

The top eight go directly through to the round of 16. Clubs placed 9th to 24th will go into two-legged playoffs, with the winners going through and the losers dropping into the Europa League. Clubs ranked 25th to 36th will be eliminated from Europe.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

Oh for the days of cup competitions where you played a match against a randomly drawn team and if you won it you moved onto the next round!!

 

[horseman]

Oh for the days of cup competitions where you played a match against a randomly drawn team and if you won it you moved onto the next round!!

a number of years ago Jasper Carrot did a joke regarding the European competitions when in their original format.that joke has come to pass.

Money Money Money and let's be blunt Man Utd have been garbage yet with this new format based on current season they would get a place.

as things stand if used today the 2 extra places would be from Holland and England

 

[werthersoriginal]

I find it easy to ignore the European competitions as I don't have Sky or BT. But it sounds like I've missed some exciting games.

 

[horseman]

I find it easy to ignore the European competitions as I don't have Sky or BT. But it sounds like I've missed some exciting games.

to be fair only the odd 1 or 2 and those were knockout games which should tell the powers that be what they need to know but will ignore due to money money money.

Many of the Group matches are like Dishwater

 

[tonyw]

UEFA going the same way as FIFA - letting greed override sporting integrity.

The fact is that 32 is, and always will be, the perfect number for a sporting tournament where you want everyone to play a few matches and then have a knockout.
It's simple, it's elegant, it just works.

Soon as you go to three or nine or 103-team groups then you ratchet up the complexity a hundred fold or create weird incentives, and it ruins the tournament.

I don't even watch the Champions League any more and this still pisses me off.
First FIFA do it because they want more teams, so the smaller nations of the world keep voting the council members back into their cushy jobs.
Now UEFA do it just because they want all the rich clubs to play as many matches as they can, but they don't want to bar everyone else entirely. Yet.

 

[Oxymoron]

a number of years ago Jasper Carrot did a joke regarding the European competitions when in their original format.

 

[bazzer9461]

Let’s see in the EFL and other national FA do something to sort this bollox out. As has been said this is forerunner for the ESL. It needs all the smaller teams in each roof their various FA’s need to gang up and come up with a plan that will fook up UEFA and FIFA.

 

[mooro]

I think it has been reduced from the originally planned 10 games to 8 in the league phase. The Idea of adding the two highest coefficient sides not qualified has been replaced with another side from the two best performing countries in the previous season, which in recent times has included England more often than not.

I'm intrigued by how the 'swiss' system for selecting fixtures will work out in practice, but can't see why the current system needed changing