UEFA Champions League 2016-2017

[AC_Wesley]

Last year without Milan.

Teams should take advantage while they still can.

[Sage]

time for euromax to win the CL.

[ForzaSandro]

He actually might.

[Massaro94]

Originally Posted by Sage

time for euromax to win the CL.

When was the last time a team that finished 2nd in the group stages went onto win the UCL ?

Allegri 6 seasons in the UCL

6 second place finishes

[Az.]

Originally Posted by AC_Wesley

Last year without Milan.

Teams should take advantage while they still can.

Wishful thinking much? Going to be at least 2 more years till we get into CL and that's if somehow we get bought this summer.

A.Madrid will finally take it this year.

[acm55]

Champions League play-off draw:

Porto-Roma

[vB9]

The Chinese arent stupid they know CL is a must, by the end of 350m, they'll want to be a serious CL competitive team. To really boost our chances, ideally, we want sum big teams going out at the group stage so we cud buy 1 or 3 worthy players and really finish in top 3. Assuming we keep peace until Jan.

[necromancer]

Proposal drafted for 4 guaranteed places to the 4 big leagues for CL, from 2018. http://www.gazzetta.it/Calcio/Champi...59992455.shtml

3 places will be as per league finish and the 4th will go to 'historic success'. Essentially, we may be able to sneak in 2 years from now.

[necromancer]

If this were in place for this year's competition and the 4th team was picked on the basis of 2016 end co-efficients, the top 4 teams from each league would be:

Italy: Juve, Napoli, Roma, Milan
England: Leicester, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea (Instead of City)
Spain: Barca, Madrid, Atletico, Valencia (Instead of Villarreal)
Germany: Bayern, Dortmund, Leverkusen, Schalke (Instead of Monchengladbach)

[IcyDiavolo]

Originally Posted by necromancer

And I agree with it also. If this weren't done, the big teams would've just formed the Super League and ruined the CL. Fans want to see Milan, Chelsea, United etc in the CL every season. Fans should drive football, not a sense of fairness.

I agree that fans should drive football, but not like this. Clubs would become displaced just because of history, despite having performed better in their domestic league (and actually being a better team). If you don't want fairness then we may as well cherry pick who we want and who we don't want in the Champions League.

Talking about fans, imagine if the proposal took effect from last season. Manchester City finish 4th while 10th placed Chelsea get in. Villarreal got 4th while Valencia finished 12th. Boy would I be pissed if I supported those 4th placed teams. I don't mind if the top 4 leagues are guaranteed 4 spots as they are the strongest leagues, but the best 4 need to go through. No one should get a free pass just because they were good in the past.

A long time ago you had to finish 1st in your own league to actually qualify for the Champions League. You had to be the best. Now we could have a scenario where a club finishing in the bottom half of the table gets in over the 4th placed team? Seems rather absurd to me.

[jammin]

They should just ban certain teams from the CL, the Arsenals, Romas and Napolis.

[Polotelli]

Originally Posted by necromancer

Proposal drafted for 4 guaranteed places to the 4 big leagues for CL, from 2018. http://www.gazzetta.it/Calcio/Champi...59992455.shtml

3 places will be as per league finish and the 4th will go to 'historic success'. Essentially, we may be able to sneak in 2 years from now.

For the Serie A this would mean an extra spot, so I guess we can't complain

This is just a sneaky way to keep some teams in it, but this plan could easily backfire when it's not the right team with the most coefficient points. I mean next year even Lazio will be ahead of us. They should just introduce wildcards already if they want us really back.

[necromancer]

Originally Posted by IcyDiavolo

I agree that fans should drive football, but not like this. Clubs would become displaced just because of history, despite having performed better in their domestic league (and actually being a better team). If you don't want fairness then we may as well cherry pick who we want and who we don't want in the Champions League.

Talking about fans, imagine if the proposal took effect from last season. Manchester City finish 4th while 10th placed Chelsea get in. Villarreal got 4th while Valencia finished 12th. Boy would I be pissed if I supported those 4th placed teams. I don't mind if the top 4 leagues are guaranteed 4 spots as they are the strongest leagues, but the best 4 need to go through. No one should get a free pass just because they were good in the past.

A long time ago you had to finish 1st in your own league to actually qualify for the Champions League. You had to be the best. Now we could have a scenario where a club finishing in the bottom half of the table gets in over the 4th placed team? Seems rather absurd to me.

See.. All you arguments are fairness based. And I don't disagree with you at all that it's unfair.

But the point is that UEFA will make more money if Milan and Chelsea get in rather than City and BATE or whatever. It's not a democratic institution. It's a business driven by fans.

The equity football has today and the reason the sport is so valuable is because of teams like Milan and Madrid and so on. You can't ignore history if you're looking at the current valuation of the sport and the current benefits it reaps.

[IcyDiavolo]

Originally Posted by necromancer

See.. All you arguments are fairness based. And I don't disagree with you at all that it's unfair.

But the point is that UEFA will make more money if Milan and Chelsea get in rather than City and BATE or whatever. It's not a democratic institution. It's a business driven by fans.

The equity football has today and the reason the sport is so valuable is because of teams like Milan and Madrid and so on. You can't ignore history if you're looking at the current valuation of the sport and the current benefits it reaps.

I'm not saying my opinion isn't fairness-based. I agree with this post entirely.

I can easily imagine the uproar however from less-historic clubs, which makes me wonder how historic success is even measured, i.e. if they prioritise more recent achievements. There are clubs that won titles decades ago but have declined massively since (and are thus no longer considered "big clubs").

[MilanMB]

Originally Posted by necromancer

If this were in place for this year's competition and the 4th team was picked on the basis of 2016 end co-efficients, the top 4 teams from each league would be:

Italy: Juve, Napoli, Roma, Milan
England: Leicester, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea (Instead of City)
Spain: Barca, Madrid, Atletico, Valencia (Instead of Villarreal)
Germany: Bayern, Dortmund, Leverkusen, Schalke (Instead of Monchengladbach)

Explain this to me because it doesn't make sense.

So Milan would have been automatically qualified for CL every year?

[Burlesqoni]

A lot of business nonsense going around at the moment I see. Well I guess that's the 'modern' world we live in.

[necromancer]

Originally Posted by MilanMB

Explain this to me because it doesn't make sense.

So Milan would have been automatically qualified for CL every year?

Not every year. The fourth qualified is the highest coefficient ranked team among the teams not in top 3 for each of the four leagues. That's still Milan in Italy. Inter is some 8 points behind us in coefficients.

[MilanMB]

Originally Posted by necromancer

Not every year. The fourth qualified is the highest coefficient ranked team among the teams not in top 3 for each of the four leagues. That's still Milan in Italy. Inter is some 8 points behind us in coefficients.

I don't like the idea tbh, Milan didn't deserve to take part in CL this year. History is important but shouldn't decide today IMO. It's big club favoritism. It's kind of demeaning as well to get a CL spot that way.

The fairness argument stands in this case. Clubs work hard for a CL spot, and the best teams should get it, it's a sport after all. This system is basically economic doping for big clubs in trouble.

At best, this is the least of all evil for UEFA if they don't want the big clubs to break out and start their own league.

I haven't done any research on it though, so I don't know all details to this new system.

[Polotelli]

Fantastic goal by Asensio

[Khurrisu]

Just add more teams and scrap the Europa League. The latter is a novelty at best in modern football. With power houses playing 3 days a week (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) you're basically guaranteed more money.