retired_sedimohasel

what? decades for madrid to be who they are today? seriously i am completely lost here, what are you talking about? </BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah Madrid was legendary and was elected best team of the century after 1 day of existence

Yes they won the CL when it was first created but it still takes decades to build what Madrid is today and more importantly to remain at the top.
Reims was in the CL final twice in the early years now I don't even know what lower division they're playing in.

thetaoofshawn

So a team who has a bad season, but manages to get 4th in the big 3 leagues deserve to be in rather than a team in a smaller European league who destroyed their division?

Angell555666

That might be your opinion. The overall popularity and ever growing TV deals would IMO indicate that the average football fan (nor I) doesn't agree at all. </BLOCKQUOTE>

That's Football in general. Not becuase "OMG the CL is letting more teams in".

retired_sedimohasel

Yea, twice. Porto and Monaco did it just a few years ago, PSV beat Arsenal last year. All in all those are flukes not proof if their inherent greatness.

</BLOCKQUOTE>

Actually.

The point I was trying to make was that the tournement prospered in it's old format of Champions only. Since the change to letting big leagues other teams in, these teams have been forced out as they can't compete. I would simply like to see a reduced number of teams from one country in so other countries can compete at a better level. And TBH I can't see what's wrong with that. </BLOCKQUOTE>

What's wrong with that is that it would make the CL weaker. Unless you trully believe that the Slovenian champion is better than the 4th EPL side. </BLOCKQUOTE>

Well by that logic you might as well add the 5th, 6th and 7th Premiership sides to the CL because they are probably better then most other CL entries. </BLOCKQUOTE>

And I don't see what would be wrong with that.
Would you prevent a certain number of teams from London to be in the EPL just because they're all in the same city?

retired_sedimohasel

What you call a bad season is a matter of perception.
I personally think that a team finishing 4th in the EPL had a better season than the team winning the Slovenian League.
Should we put the winner of the Championship in the CL just because they're "Champion"? To me that's basically what you're saying, location doesn't matter to me what I want is the best teams to play in the best competition.

retired_v_meenucancer

i imagine franco and the bank of spain probably helped.

probably wouldn't be so good now if they'd kept finishing third.

kwchannell89

True. That doesn't make it a good idea.

If you want to watch crappy minnows just get more satellite channels ffs, don't mess up our CL. </BLOCKQUOTE>

Plenty of good teams round there to be honest, the gap has just grown over time, few years and they'll catch up to a decent level again. </BLOCKQUOTE>

That's the thing, I don't think the gap is closing but rather widening (if that is a word) </BLOCKQUOTE>


so ukranian, czech and russian teams are getting worse (they are still minnows when compared to the english/spanish/italian teams)? what planet do you live on? the amount of money the smaller teams make from games against the bigger clubs will help them catch up with italian, spanish and english clubs.
tbh it seems you want football in the smaller nations to die away instead of improve.

btw the third/fourth teams from the three major nations are not better than the champions/runner-up from smaller nations. after all rosenborg beat valencia(in spain), olympiakos drew with real, and slavia praque drew with arsenal. yes these teams from smaller nations are just so rubbish.

Angell555666

Yea, twice. Porto and Monaco did it just a few years ago, PSV beat Arsenal last year. All in all those are flukes not proof if their inherent greatness.

</BLOCKQUOTE>

Actually.

The point I was trying to make was that the tournement prospered in it's old format of Champions only. Since the change to letting big leagues other teams in, these teams have been forced out as they can't compete. I would simply like to see a reduced number of teams from one country in so other countries can compete at a better level. And TBH I can't see what's wrong with that. </BLOCKQUOTE>

What's wrong with that is that it would make the CL weaker. Unless you trully believe that the Slovenian champion is better than the 4th EPL side. </BLOCKQUOTE>

Well by that logic you might as well add the 5th, 6th and 7th Premiership sides to the CL because they are probably better then most other CL entries. </BLOCKQUOTE>

And I don't see what would be wrong with that.
Would you prevent a certain number of teams from London to be in the EPL just because they're all in the same city? </BLOCKQUOTE>

Obviously not but we have a league structure where you reach and stay in the Premiership on merit not messed up seeding.

retired_sedimohasel

That might be your opinion. The overall popularity and ever growing TV deals would IMO indicate that the average football fan (nor I) doesn't agree at all. </BLOCKQUOTE>

That's Football in general. Not becuase "OMG the CL is letting more teams in". </BLOCKQUOTE>

I doubt (but could stand corrected) that the Romanian/Slovenian/Hongarian TV rights increase as fast as the CL/EPL TV rights and that's why the gap is widening, not because more or less teams are playing in the CL.

retired_anneduck

No they won't they're given every disadvantage, more qualifying round and non-seeding. Solution is simple, have the fourth placed teams play each other instead of national champions, suddenly it would be a lot more open for champions to qualify. Fortunately Europe consists of more than 5 leagues.

You don't think that being recent European Champions porves that they could put up a pretty decent show given the chance? Except that opportunity is taken away from them by giving it to fourth placed teams, and they fall even further behind, the clubs in the Champions League year after year blatantly have a huge financial advantage over others, which is why most of them are the same, year in year out.