So what do you expect? I personally dont know.

I just hope qualification for UEFA Euro competitions is more sensible instead of pitting David vs Golliath every time that it becomes a farce. as for Champions League, I agree with Platini's format about all knockout rounds but disagree that England and Spain and Italy should have 3 representitives. they are too big a league to have 3 if i am being honest.

Me too disagree that he want to reduce the slot for this 3 countries. Soon, we can watch in the final UCL team like Levski Sofia vs FK Varder Skopje. Who want to see this final?

I think, he just want the vote from the smaller country to become the president of UEFA.



This post has been edited by slacx: Jan 27 2007, 06:05 AM

i thought he would go for only 1 or 2 and give the French clubs more slots in CL. but agree that would compromise the quality of the CL itself. 3 teams from each league mentioned are still ok but not less than that.

I personally think 3 is fine as well. Having 4 has always been the "farce" so to speak since u're talking about the "Champions" League after all. Allowing representation from more European countries is a better move for the long term. Otherwise u would see the gap growing even larger between the G14 clubs and the rest which isn't good for UEFA.

The format will stay as it is. The money involved will see to that. And to suggest that reducing the 3 top leagues' participants to 3 will reduce the quality of football is abit moot since the big clubs almost always feature in the latter stages anyway.

increase the number of teams then....make the Champions get a bye in first few rounds (since platini is making it a KO tournament through and through) whereas the rest will get to grind it out. I think we have to accept the fact that certain leagues are bigger than others. Not seeing a Liverpool or a Arsenal next season will be farcical. not seeing Sevilla or Valencia will be equally farcical. its not about QUALITY and QUANTITY.

i doubt we should sacrifice one for another.

The format won't be changed to a Cup KO competition like the old European cups. Platini has already said that there was no way that was happening.

And increase the number of teams to what? 32 is already a large number. We already have qulification stages that involve alot of teams as well. And despite your claims that not having Arsenal, Liverpool, Valencia in the competition is farcical...i beg to differ. They aren't the champions of their respective leagues and the original idea of having a European competition in the 1st place is to have the champions squaring off against each other. Having 3 teams to represent a country is more than enough. Quality won't be sacrificed anyway because u still have the top 3 teams from the top leagues and most of them if not all will still end up in the latter stages.
Besides won't this improve the quality of the UEFA Cup a notch as well?

even with the FC Basels, the Copenhagens and the other "champions" facing off, they will never win the Champions League.. and I still do believe that Platini is slowly wanting a change in format of the Champions League. If I remembered correctly, Platini was not a fan of the "league" format and wanted to be "Cup". and as for not having valencia and liverpool there is ok, i cannot agree. we want to see the best in Europe. and not the "best of the rest". And yes 32 is a big number but give "byes" to the Champions of the respective leagues? and still mantain the number of 32 by giving places to teams from "other leagues" I am no planner for UEFA and I guess that teams will disagree as a lost of revenue but less matches =more chances to win the Champions League for me .

EDIT: the quality of UEFA Cup will still be OKAY if/when the third team in each group goes down to the UEFA Cup. so we could still have big teams down there.

This post has been edited by kobe8byrant: Jan 27 2007, 12:41 PM

Platini isn't a fan of the league format but he has since said that he won't make any drastic changes as there would be huge opposition to that format as it generates less revenue.

We want to see the best in Europe and we will still see the best in Europe. We are not giving free candies to associations with weaker leagues. They all still have to go through the qualifying round. They just have a better chance of making it through to the first round. And we all know that the 1st rd and the KO rounds will filter all the weaker teams out leaving only the best teams to fight it out; which is what we want in the first place.

The only reason why there is opposition against Platini's suggestions is because of money. And that shouldn't be appluaded in any way. The G-14 clubs hold alot of power as it is. Driving them towards creating their own super league is a no-no to me. It's not like changing it to 3 teams that we will suddenly see Copenhagen winning the CL. It's just giving a chance for the smaller clubs to represent their country in the limelight even if for a short period. They all are after all part of UEFA.

dat ought to heat up the game in england where the big 4 would have to slug it out for only 3 spots. wasnt suprised at all about platini's victory

We can see this big team win by 5-0 or 7-0 for every match against champion in the smaller country. Still the club in the smaller country is not match against club in England, ITaly and Spain IMHO.

possibly true.but i also agree with theripper, to add slots for French club

I always want to see the best football; so definitely no to just having 3 teams from each country in the CL.

In the end money will call the shots and I doubt Platini will be able to implement any changes in club football. He'll be doing a great job by just keeping everything together and eliminating racism.

I think Platini will try to tighten up football laws against EU labour laws. Putting 5-7 homegrown players in a team is really a faulty and poor idea. I just hope football players are not allowed to choose which national team they want to play for. Since when do you choose your nationality?

as for homegrown, i am with it. sorry. although homegrown players have inflated fees (most prominent in england but its a lie to say spain or italy dont suffer as well), we want to see the best english players in england and not in other countries. besides for some clubs, the players are good enough but the team doesnt field them because they are not star enough or they rather BUY talent than groom one. so yes to homegrown. its only faulty when a team doesnt groom players properly.

as for 3 teams. i say stick with 4 but give the champions a bye. that way, the "not so good" teams can play in the league round and get a chance. thats what i think

EDIT: choosing nationality is under FIFA, no?

This post has been edited by kobe8byrant: Jan 29 2007, 05:55 PM

Champions League should be for the champions of each UEFA country... i.e. one team from each country...
Quality will drop, yes i think having 4th placed teams in there is lame

So would you want to see the champions of say Montenegro every year?

The champions of Montenegro wouldn't be able to qualify for the group stage regardless whether the top 3 leagues have 3 or 4 teams. Stop assuming that just because 3 teams won't be able to participate that they will be replaced by very awful ones.

ya, they probably wouldn't be able to make it through the group stages but teams like Tottenham, Bolton, Sevilla, Valencia, Roma and Palermo have obviously more quality than many other 'champions'.

This is again about national pride. Spain, Italy and England deserve their successes and riches because they had visionaries who pioneered commercializing football. They have a right to monopolize the Champions League money because they are the best leagues and it's up to the rest to play catch up.

To be honest i think u are overrating teams like Bolton and Palermo. They are probably on the same level as Copenhagen for instance. And it is impossible for the others to catch up if most of the money goes to the top 3 leagues. It's a catch-22 situation. Spain, Italy and England do deserve their success (and having 3 teams is a good enough recognition of their success) but the Champions League should be better represented. It is after all a European competition. If we wanted a best only competition then the G-14 clubs should go create one themselves which is exactly what UEFA are against in the 1st place.

A G-14 Cup would not work but a G-14 league might. Surely people will rejoice watching top top teams playing on a regular basis. But all things should be done in moderation as money corrupts so I think the present CL is a very well done job by UEFA. Don't fix something that ain't broken.

YES. It is called the 'Champions' League after all. Otherwise, rename it European League or something.

Nobody wanted to watch the Greeks in Euro 2004. We all know what happened.