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European Fitba'


ONeils40yarder
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I would love to have a look at the Atlas at UEFA HQ.

Can only echo most of the sentiments on here. Certainly no fan of Celtic but making them play 3 ties and travel to the arse end of nowhere when they are the champions of a league and they made such an impact in the CL last year is ridiculous. But to then shoe horn in in the 2rd and 3th placed teams from the 'big leagues' for being champions of absolutely hee-haw is a kick in the stones for any real champions from the 'smaller' footballing nations.

 

UEFA Corrupt and greedy certainly, however I think the sheen of the CL tournament is starting to fade and the general arm chair neutrals are losing interest. Same shite different year etc. Honestly think it would be more engaging, as some have suggested, to actually make it a champions league. Don't see it happening though.

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European competition is further spoiled by being too feckin big by half. It's not the 80s any more. Back then you had a few teams from Yugoslavia and a few from the Soviet Union. Christ knows how many extra teams are in it now since those two countries split into so many countries. Add Czechoslovakia to the list too. Maybe it IS time to regionalise the early stages

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The biggest disappointment for me over the campaign has just been the total anti-climax of it all. Just with the draw after being so close to what would've been an amazing trip, and the total lack of belief that we could have done something against the Russians, to now being out.

 

I think we'll be in Europe next year, just hope we give it a good go and it doesn't turn out to be a wet sponge like this year.

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The format should be as follows:

 

The winners from leagues in Europe should be the seeded teams with the top 16 performing leagues getting their teams straight in. The rest fight it out in the qualifying rounds.

 

The second placed teams in the leagues are then the next ranked teams

 

etc etc

 

This is a fair system, will make qualifying far more exiting and not just a system to allow the top teams easy passage into the CL or Europa leagues.

 

Simple system that would work really well.

 

But I am pretty certain you will soon see a Champions League with only teams from England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany - everyone else will have to qualify.

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The format should be as follows:

 

The winners from leagues in Europe should be the seeded teams with the top 16 performing leagues getting their teams straight in. The rest fight it out in the qualifying rounds.

 

The second placed teams in the leagues are then the next ranked teams

 

etc etc

 

This is a fair system, will make qualifying far more exiting and not just a system to allow the top teams easy passage into the CL or Europa leagues.

 

Simple system that would work really well.

 

But I am pretty certain you will soon see a Champions League with only teams from England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany - everyone else will have to qualify.

 

Completely on board with this. For all UEFA's nonsense about wanting to share out the money to other clubs, they're full of shite. Champions go into the champions league, they share out the money, everyone gets better, and in all honesty, who really loses out in this system? The biggest clubs with the biggest fanbases will still dominate, but smaller clubs, from smaller leagues get a slice of the colossal cash pie which makes the world of difference to them. If we got a fraction of the CL cash that Celtic got (not a slight on them, they get what they deserve for getting there), but if we got a tenth of that, it would set us up for the best part of a decade. We keep good players, we don't sell them because we have to, as does everyone else, and the whole league prospers.

 

Then one their day, some tiny team will scalp a big team, and it'll be a great moment for them that goes down in history. Things like that are currently taken away.

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UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino has spoken of "the chance of glory for everyone" as teams strive to reach the group stages of this season's European club competitions...

"This year's campaign is proving to be fascinating so far, because we are seeing representatives of some European countries participating in this stage of the competition for the very first time....

This quite clearly reflects the sporting diversity of the UEFA Champions League and, more importantly, it provides ample proof that there is a chance of football glory for everyone."

 

I find this really pathetic... There may well be a chance of glory, but the coefficients and seeding etc significantly reduce that chance... And they clearly feel the need to defend themselves

 

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Lets face a few facts here, this was our fifth outing in Europe in the past 6 seasons. In the last three outings we have lost our final home game by two goals to nil.

This was Kubans first match in Europe, ever. The looked as if they had played in Europe all their lives, we looked like amateurs. They played the perfect European away game. Suckered us in and hit us on the break.

We do all the hard work getting there and then treat it like an exotic friendly.

In the last six years we have learnt fuck all, and that's disgraceful.

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We do all the hard work getting there and then treat it like an exotic friendly.

In the last six years we have learnt fuck all, and that's disgraceful.

I dunno, I've learned that teams with an annual revenue far beyond anything we can dream of will usually beat us quite comfortably.

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We've played in it for 5 of the last 6 years under McGhee, Gannon, Brown and McCall.

 

Not only different managers but different teams, running from having Clarkson, McCormack, Craigan, Reynolds, Porter, Hughes, Ruddy, Slane, Randolf, Humphrey, Sutton, Jennings, Law, Murphy, Hollis etc etc etc.

 

The main theme being change. The name Motherwell may have consistently appeared in Europe, but not the men trying to work it out and plot our way to the group stages.

 

On top of this, for the most part, we literally get 5000 or so folk a match every home game.

 

The way I've looked at it is that we have only played in Europe a few times prior to 2007, then suddenly it's almost every season. I feel lucky to have saw that considering it has taken some others quite literally a lifetime to see it.

 

This doesn't mean criticism can't be applied, but we can't criticise a new team for not leaning the lessons we've been subject to over the past 6 years,

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Be honest, for Champions League read big TV Audience league, top and bottom of the argument there.

 

Scotland doesn't have the audience that those big countries can attract therefore we aren't welcome, UEFA have gone out of their way to facilitiate those countries that can attract the large audience as it makes more money for them and everyone involved and it won't change until the audience switch off. It's why the whole format came into being after all, one big team got knocked out early and complained, threatening to take all the big clubs into a breakaway competition, UEFA shat a brick and worked out this 'compromise.' UEFA are still scared of that threat so they won't change a thing until their hand is forced again.

 

As for scunnered...I'm still scunnered by Dortmund's cheating at Fir Park cos we gave them that much of a fright over there. :rolleyes:

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Be honest, for Champions League read big TV Audience league, top and bottom of the argument there.

 

Scotland doesn't have the audience that those big countries can attract therefore we aren't welcome, UEFA have gone out of their way to facilitiate those countries that can attract the large audience as it makes more money for them and everyone involved and it won't change until the audience switch off. It's why the whole format came into being after all, one big team got knocked out early and complained, threatening to take all the big clubs into a breakaway competition, UEFA shat a brick and worked out this 'compromise.' UEFA are still scared of that threat so they won't change a thing until their hand is forced again.

 

As for scunnered...I'm still scunnered by Dortmund's cheating at Fir Park cos we gave them that much of a fright over there. :rolleyes:

 

Totally agree with that, the CL and EL are geared up to make sure that the big teams from the main European leagues get even more cash each year, thats why they are spending and paying out obscene amounts of cash for players etc. UEFA don't give a rats arse about any of the smaller nations or the possible financial hardships they might suffer just for qualifying, is that a fitting reward for a good season.

If you look at the CL group stages year in year out its the same teams involved, occasionally there is a smaller team involved, like St Pats in last years EL groups and Ommonia Nicosia in the CL, but usually its the same major European teams each year. Its the main Euro nations calling the shots, and UEFA are shit scared of upsetting Barca, Real Madrid, Man untd, Bayern etc in case the tell them to feck off and negotiate their own TV deals.

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Wouldn't mind if the qualifying process was regionalised, but I would like it if we were put with the scandinavian teams, instead of France, England etc. They're always going to put big teams up against small teams cos thee big teams should be going through and Europe is just meant to be a wee experience for the small teams. We need to cause an upset at Europe to become one of the big teams, for instance, St. Johnstone caused a massive upset through beating rosenborg and were therefore seeded next round, who's to say we couldn't cause an upset? Also, another way to become a big team, is through money. Scotland simply needs more money, and let's face it we aren't going to suddenly get some billionaire owner showing up like what happened at Anzhi Mackachalclaadfad. So I guess upsets it is

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Scandinavian countries along with the Benelux countries and the Irish and Welsh would be ideal. Plenty different teams to face that would keep things interesting. A fair chance of a decent tie between two evenly matched teams. Relatively easy to travel to for away fans.

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