Champions League 2024-2025

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

Where would Shakhtar away be played? Guessing not in Donetsk.

They played their "home" European matches in Poland in 22/23 and in Hamburg last season.

Cheers Dave. Would be a much handier away fixture amd hopefully mean our team would be less tired.

That would depend on how long they spend on The Reeperbahn!

[rougegorge]

Where would Shakhtar away be played? Guessing not in Donetsk.

Same question if we got Maccabi away. Weren't they playing in Hungary in the Conference home games?

Maccabi Haifa played games in Budapest, but Maccabi Tel Aviv played their 'home' games in Bačka Topola in Serbia which has a tiny capacity, which didn't matter as they were effectively playing behind closed doors. The crowd for the 'home' leg against Olympiacos (when they threw away that 4-1 first leg lead) was stated as 370. 

[Somniloquism]

I forgot there were two Maccabi's.

[ADVILLAFAN]

There are loads of Maccabis and Hapoels.

Think Maccabi generally right wing and Hapoel more left wing.

[Brazilian Villain]

Think Maccabi generally right wing and Hapoel more left wing.

Useful to know when deciding who to cheer for.

[edgysatsuma89]

The CBS CEO seems to be hopeful that there will be CL games being played in the US in the future. It wouldn't surprise me, I'm sure home fans would love it.

[Meanwood Villa]

Think Maccabi generally right wing and Hapoel more left wing.

Useful to know when deciding who to cheer for.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maccabi_World_Union

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapoel

[Drummond]

The EFL Cup third round will be split across two weeks in September and use seedings to avoid clashes with European games.

UEFA's expansion of the Champions League and Europa League to eight first-phase match rounds, plus 'exclusive' midweeks for all three competitions means they have taken 10 midweeks out of the calendar before the end of January rather than the previous six.

It has presented with EFL with a headache because two of their usual dates now clash with the weeks UEFA has reserved exclusively for Europa League and Conference League matches.

Whilst only Chelsea are involved in the latter tournament and that midweek is in December, a decision will be taken closer to the time about how to deal with potential clashes.

However, along with England’s other European qualifiers, Manchester United and Tottenham enter the EFL Cup at the third round stage in September.

In order to avoid them having to play two games in one midweek, the EFL intend to move their matches to the week before, which is the Champions League 'exclusive' week.

The EFL will use some form of seeding to ensure clubs involved in the Europa League do not get drawn against teams in the Champions League at the third round stage.

[UK Redsox]

I'd just leave Premier League clubs out of the League Cup from now on

[paul_e]

I'd just leave Premier League clubs out of the League Cup from now on

I think I added this to an other football thread a while back but I'd just change it so the conference league place always goes to the league cup winner and then remove all the teams that are playing in Europe from it. It opens it up for more winners and reduces the pressure on teams like us to have players with 50+ appearances for the season.

In rugby there's guidance (that came from a study at Bath Uni) that players should be limited to a set amount of games and minutes over a season and that exceeding these levels leads to rapidly increasing risks of injuries. I think football needs to have a similar study because once you add in all the club competitions and international fixtures 60+ games and 4500+ minutes is not unusual and that's just not sustainable. I'd be looking at soft caps around 3500minutes and 45 games (not an outright ban from playing which could create problems but some form of mandated rest period within a set time frame). It's very easy to dismiss this because "back in day they'd play ...." thinking but we can't ignore the risks because we didn't know they existed in the past.

[Brazilian Villain]

I'd just leave Premier League clubs out of the League Cup from now on

I wouldn't, but I might consider leaving out the PL teams that are playing in Europe.

[rougegorge]

I'd just leave Premier League clubs out of the League Cup from now on

I wouldn't, but I might consider leaving out the PL teams that are playing in Europe.

If that happened, they would probably have to withdraw the Conference League place that goes to the League Cup winners.

Admittedly, in most recent seasons, the League Cup winner has already qualified for Europe via its league position, but if the European incentive of winning the League Cup were removed, it would signal the end for the League Cup as a whole.

[Paul.S]

I'd just leave Premier League clubs out of the League Cup from now on

Most PL clubs have only 2 chances of winning anything and this is one of them. I’d hope there’d be a majority of clubs against this but who knows?

[Drummond]

I'd just leave Premier League clubs out of the League Cup from now on

Most PL clubs have only 2 chances of winning anything and this is one of them. I’d hope there’d be a majority of clubs against this but who knows?

If it didn't exist, our last honours would be in 1982. At least some of us have seen us win something.

[PaulWinch again]

I like the League Cup, it’s quite compact.