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Yeah I agree, unfortunately money has been given priority over football. That's why you have those group games as opposed to knock-out rounds straight away, so that every team is guaranteed a certain amount of games, and thereby earning a lot of money.
Yeah, kind of how it used to be. Will never happen again though. The top-clubs won't stand for it nowadays with all the money at stake. Can you imagine that in Spain only the campions would go to the CL? Barca and Real would not accept that one of them will miss out from the cash, nor would Atletico. Or here in England, with all the top-clubs only one would participate? In Germany Bayern would be the only participant every year, in France with PSG, which makes it boring. Also, back then there were more strong leagues around, so the champions of those leagues were worthy participants in the CL. The champions of the Dutch, Belgian and Scottish leagues were top-teams at the time. Clubs like Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord, Anderlecht, Rangers and Celtic were quality sides. Nowadays that's a lot less, so that's also an argument against going back to the old format.
In fact the very reason the CL has gradually expanded beyond just the champions is that clubs from the top-leagues wanted more opportunities to qualify for the CL. Top-clubs won't accept the old format, they would break away from UEFA if they were to install that. We actually see the opposite happening at the moment, with even more clubs from the top-countries being guaranteed a starting place (latest addition is that the top four from Germany, England, Spain and Italy are all guaranteed to get CL). And top-clubs are still not fully content and even threaten with this super-league stuff.
What I would say though is that while the CL is there to stay and won't go back to only including champions, in fact I can see it expanding even more, UEFA should review the EL. Right now the concept of that competition is the same as the CL, but it has basically become a B or loser-version of it. If you get third in your CL group you even get to participate in the EL, which just confirms their status as a loser-competition. Same with not getting through the qualifiying round of the CL, still can get you in the EL, also confirms it. In England the seventh placed team can even get EL depending on who wins the cups, what kind of achievement is that... The worst of it all was the fair-play place that got you into this competition. And then if you actually win the damn thing, your reward is that you get into the CL and don't have to play into this competition again. You can't even defend your trophy, clubs are more happy that they are out of it and in the CL, lol.
What I personally would like to see is that they delete the EL, or just merge it with the CL since it has the same concept anyway, and then set up a cup-competition somewhat similar to the old EC2 (cup-winners-cup). Adds some value to winning the domestic cup again, which now only gets you into the EL which nobody cares about, while at the same time it's a completely different tournament than the CL. Different concept in terms of straight knock-out, and the teams participating all deserve to be there because they actually won something, as opposed to finishing 6th or 7th in the League, 3rd in the CL group or through fair-play bullsh!t.
Back then some of those teams were a lot better than they are now though. Feyenoord and Anderlecht come to mind for instance.
Cheap houses , ?
North Sea Rivera , ?
fat girls in incredibly short skirts , ?
A love for the Likely Lads ,?
Bracing weather, ?
Geordie Tapas , ?
Brown ale nightlife , ?
Fog on the Tyne , ?
Blaydon races Al fresco , ?
Andy cap culture , ?
Gateshead Caberet , ?
I see your point .
You almost make it sound good!
(I'm doing a PhD up here. My thesis is, conveniently, about a London housing estate.)
(I'm doing a PhD up here. My thesis is, conveniently, about a London housing estate.)
I'm surprised Spurs didn't mention it in their pre-match fate-tempting string of tweets!
- BAYER HAVE NEVER KEPT A CLEAN SHEET AGAINST ENGLISH CLUBS; FACT! (until we met them)
- WE HAVEN'T CONCEDED A GOAL FROM OPEN PLAY IN THE PL THIS SEASON;
FACT (until we did at the weekend!)
- VINCENT JANSSEN HAS SCORED THE MOST PENALTIES IN EUROPE THIS SEASON OF ANY PLAYER NAMED VINCENT JANSSEN F-A-C-T !!!
Because you fully expect them to gain promotion... and you just wanted to get in early for your away ticket in the Spurs end next season!
It's the only reason I'm hoping Sunderland stay up for the next couple of seasons too! (As if I can get an away ticket with my loyalty points...)
:eriksenlol:
ochlol:
:vert:
:defoe:
The only way we'll be playing Sunderland next season is if we go down with them!
"we spend years" the clubs priorities and my priorities are not the same. Just because the club sees being in the CL as the be all and end all doesn't mean I do/should.
...and has it done any good yet?
BTW... Alan Hutton, William Gallas, Bassong, Pav... all playing for us... IN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!!
Either they totally lucked out, or it really must've been tin-pot back then!
We were pretty damn exciting back then. Pretty sure we were the first team in the history of the competition to score 2+ goals in every single group game.
I'm glad I'm not alone. When we were last in it I couldn't wait to see who we were playing. I watched the draw, I watched every game live. I never missed a single minute. Where as now I'm just like "I'll read about this game later"
I don't know what UEFA can do to make the Champions League more exciting though, everyone is a bit too defensive these days.
Oh come on guys, these arguments are like saying you're not excited for steak tonight because you're having lobster next week, or because you've had so many steaks recently that they're getting a bit boring. There are people out there starving that would love to even lick your plate!
Stop shooting at defenders or dribble to nowhere when your teammate is open especially if its Son a world class shooter. Dont waste his runs early bc we know hes no superman like Kane and will run out of gas. Stop show boating and pass for the team not for yourselves. You are all fucking wasting again like last year. Fucking disgusting
Thanks for your input Luvf.
