Champions League restructuring

[algy]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/feb/04/champions-league-revamp-talks-could-herald-end-of-group-stage

Uefa is understood to have proposed the scrapping of the format of eight groups of four and replacing it with one league where each team plays 10 matches in a so-called ‘Swiss system’.

Used the swiss system in Subbuteo competitions in my youth. Sadly people almost always butcher the system, and I'd be highly surprised if that wasn't also the case here. The number of games should be exactly the same as the number of rounds for a straight knockout - so 10 matches would be the right amount for 1024 (2^10) teams ...

[LeeB]

That system looks full of holes to me.

[Dave]

That system looks full of holes to me.

You can canton them to make things too complicated.

[Sexual Ealing]

They're trying to take all the romansch out of the competition.

[PaulWinch again]

Blimey that sounds fucking tedious.

[OCD]

It would help if they reduced the international fixture calendar rather than adding the UEFA Nations League to existing qualifiers and friendlies.

Excluding Champions League teams from the League cup would be better than scrapping it.

[cdbearsfan]

Leave the League Cup alone you twats.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

The Toblerone Cup.

[LeeB]

It would help if they reduced the international fixture calendar rather than adding the UEFA Nations League to existing qualifiers and friendlies.

Excluding Champions League teams from the League cup would be better than scrapping it.

It would help if they ceased being grasping bastards and just went back to a straight knockout.

It would add prestige back to, it would ease the burden on the players and the calendar, revitalise and level up the domestic leagues by stopping the distortion in quality around a select few clubs.

There's no end of benefits to that course of action, I can't for the life of me think why it never gets considered.

[TheMalandro]

European Cup, UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup. That would be nice.

[OCD]

It would help if they reduced the international fixture calendar rather than adding the UEFA Nations League to existing qualifiers and friendlies.

Excluding Champions League teams from the League cup would be better than scrapping it.

It would help if they ceased being grasping bastards and just went back to a straight knockout.

It would add prestige back to, it would ease the burden on the players and the calendar, revitalise and level up the domestic leagues by stopping the distortion in quality around a select few clubs.

There's no end of benefits to that course of action, I can't for the life of me think why it never gets considered.

Here's the thing. If we suddenly kicked on for the rest of the season and qualified for next year's CL, would you rather it be a knock-out competition and risk getting knocked out early for less money or have a group stage where there's a guaranteed pot of money?

Maybe the competition does need to be completely revamped. It seems to have lost it's appeal compared to where it was a few years ago.

I know these dick head owners called it 'Project Big Picture' but rather than looking at one specific competition, maybe they do need to step back and look at the big picture of all elite level football as a whole because it does seem to be a mess, especially at international level.

[Footy-Vill]

European Cup, UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup. That would be nice.

Jonathan Pearce loves mentioning the Fairs Cup
I've had a look at that and see Birmingham have been in the final twice . Found that surprising. Shocked actually but then read more on it.
Did Villa ever partake on this or was Birmingham then used as the representative of the city?
I see it was for teams of trade fairs pre cursor to uefa Cup likes of Juventus and Barcelona were in it.

[kippaxvilla2]

They really are Milka’ing this.

[exigo]

Sounds Emmental.

[Exeter 77]

European Cup, UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup. That would be nice.

Jonathan Pearce loves mentioning the Fairs Cup
I've had a look at that and see Birmingham have been in the final twice . Found that surprising. Shocked actually but then read more on it.
Did Villa ever partake on this or was Birmingham then used as the representative of the city?
I see it was for teams of trade fairs pre cursor to uefa Cup likes of Juventus and Barcelona were in it.

Initially it involved representative sides for the cites who had trade fairs which is why a London XI made the first final. Birmingham was invited to enter a team but Villa declined to provide players so Blues entered by default but the team in the records is Birmingham not Birmingham City.