I used to like Michel Platini. When I was growing up, I can specifically recall seeing him gliding around the pitch on what seemed like a cushion of air during the 1986 World Cup. His every movement had such grace, every ball he kicked seemed to go exactly where it should and every scoring opportunity he had seemed to result in a goal. The man was a legend.
You can appreciate the optimism I had, therefore, when the former French captain gained the presidency of UEFA in January this year. Here was a man who promised sensibility along with new ideas to make the European game better than it's ever been before.
How sad, then, that I should find myself this week shaking my head in disbelief at the new idea Platini has suggested. Having failed in his bid to reduce the maximum number of participating clubs per country in the Champions League from four to three, he's now produced a compromise: for one of those four teams to be the winner of that country's main cup competition.
Now at this stage I feel the need to give you some sort of tangible image of what that could mean. Going by Platini's grand scheme and based on some of the more recent FA Cup Finals, teams like West Ham, Southampton and Millwall could have come dangerously close to playing alongside the likes of Barcelona, Milan and Valencia.
Incomprehensible, you may think, to give the FA Cup winner a place in the Champions League rather than the team that finished fourth in the Premier League, but it could step closer to reality next week when Platini announces his plans officially. Yet for all the bewildering lack of logic Platini's scheme contains, there's a simple solution which I've managed to come up with.
My idea is to take away the qualification place from the team that finishes fourth, then do so for the team that finishes third and second too. What you have after that is a concept which might seem bizarre, but I think it could work. It'd be a league featuring teams from around Europe who are specifically champions in their own country. A sort of 'European Champions' League', if you will.
But here's the masterstroke. If you take the current format of the competition where the first round proper contains 32 teams, what you'd have is 32 countries from all over the continent represented - not the fifteen that took part last season. It's not easy to get much more European than that, be honest.
So here's my thoughts on your new idea, Mr. Platini: if you want to improve the diversity of the Champions League and do away with the rampant commercialism and money-mindedness that permeates the game these days, forget about cup winners - in fact forget about league runners-up. Make the Champions League a league for champions and let's get a sense of realism back in this competition.
Well now I've said all I've got to say, what are your thoughts? This is, after all, the feature where you're encouraged to put your head over the pulpit and make your thoughts known. Leave us a comment and tell me whether I'm talking sense or talking out of my... soapbox.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
11 comments:
I think that giving winner of FA cup a spot on CL is an Excellent Idea. There will be competition and excitement for the 3rd place in PL and more seriousness and drama in FA cup.
I wouldn't enirely disagree with the points you make. Certainly the FA Cup would benefit from having added value and the race for third place in the PL would hot up too.
Yet for all that, a competition with the heritage of the FA Cup perhaps shouldn't need additional help? I'd have thought it should have its own attraction for those teams taking part? What do you think?
Ah! You must remember those golden days before Sky TV and the like brought greed and commercialism to the degree we have now?
The European Cup.
The European Cup Winners Cup.
The Inter-City Fairs Cup.
I agree Champions League should be just that.
Let the cup-winners play in a competition for cup winners.
If they want a competition for also-ran's then find one.
Winners of the FA Cup in the Champions League is outrageous.
SIX games and you are in the Champions League.
So much for Platini being new Billy Big Boots.
What a French Plank.
[Would that be 'Le Plank' or 'Le Timbre Strip'?]
Well to be absolutely specific, teams would have to play eight games not six. This is because Platini's plan features two knock-out qualifying rounds to establish which cup winners went through to the Champions League group phase.
Even eight matches is pretty slack though...
In reply to your comment, Kedge, we're in luck. There already is a competition for also-rans and cup winners. It's called The UEFA Cup...
Sounds good.
The big clubs from England, Spain, and Italy, and to a lesser extent Germany, France and Holland will never let it happen though.
Currently, the FIFA club World Cup has the right structure, the champion from each Continent goes to the Tournament, plus the host and the previous winner to make it an even 8. Of course, once the competition catches on, and more money gets pumped into it, it will follow the Champions League model with more and more 'marketable' teams going in. And then the European teams will win every year, rather than the Brazilian clubs.
I can see your point about creating a true "champions league," but the problem is that no one will watch. The defacto semis will be Italy, Spain, England, Germany/Portugal.
The appeal of the current CL is seeing multiple teams from the major countries face off. Roma v. Arsenal or Roma v. FC Andorian Construction PLC, your choice.
As it stands now, the CL is not only the Euro club championship, but also a benchmark for the argument about which country plays better football.
The chances for a true Cinderella story are no better now than they would be with your proposal. The minnows will always be eaten by the sharks, unless the deck is unreasonably stacked against them. And if the competition is modified with the sole purpose of helping the smaller clubs, then the competition becomes worthless.
Agreed on all counts, Adam/Chris B. It's perhaps too far down the line now to revert to an old-fashioned 'champions only' approach as the big clubs have already gotten bigger, so anyone new and small coming along would just be giant-fodder, frankly.
A shame but there it is...
It is a shame. There will never be another European champion like Steaua Bucuresti or Red Star Belgrade. The most you could hope for is a club like Ajax or Lyon to be crowned champions.
That's the economics of the game, and at this point there is no stopping it. Large clubs have so many revenue streams that they hardly need the league and CL money, while smaller clubs are just getting by on the scraps. The only recourse is to sell your club to a multi-billionaire and spend yourself into the red.
The biggest problem is the recycled Reaganomics tripe that is being preached. The more money there is, the more clubs will spend, and all that wealth will trickle down to the poor clubs. Not true in the 80's and not true today.
Hahahaha, Reaganomics. Not only did it not work in the 1980's, it didn't work in the 1920's (under Taft) and it certainly isn't working today (under Bush the dumber).
Post a Comment