G14 Threatening Champions League Boycott

Ian I'm with you all the way, as a Chelsea fan I have fond memories of the Cup Winners' Cup, at least to qualify for that tournament you actually had to bag a trophy domestically, whereas in England for example, you only have to finish in the top four to be guaranteed UEFA Cup football the following year!
I'm all for it too, it would be interesting to see if everyone else is?

If this leads to a revival in the Cup Winners' Cup, I'm all for it. I miss that competition so much. Even if it does push my beloved UEFA Cup down to third place, it was still a brilliant tournament.

The thing is, it's not about inviting South American teams to join the Champions League, it is about giving the smaller nations within Europe a greater chance of bettering their leagues.
This new proposal from Platini - if I understand correctly - would involve one place being taken away from the top nations i.e. England, Italy and Spain along with the option to award a domestic cup winner a place in the ECC instead of one of their remaining league spots.
I am not totally confident that this plan - although in theory sound - will work as the G14 have so much power over UEFA, a walkout by these clubs would leave the ECC with the same significance of the UEFA Cup and perhaps for these smaller nations, the latter is already their Champions League?

historically european clubs never cared much for the "intercontinental cup", which was usually played , right in the middle of the season, and involved some serious jet lag, are clubs going to risk their season for something nobody in europe cares much about? Also very few fans in Europe will have even heard of some of the clubs representing South America which makes it not particularly motivating. South american clubs cared very much, the famous saying projeto tóquio where the libertadores cup is not an end on itself but a chance to play the european champion. But saying european clubs do not care because they do not win is misleading, they probably do not win because they do not care. Even when they win it, press and fans do not pay much attention to it. It´s a bit like the european super-cup except even more inconvenient and without any potentially good rivalries behind it.

European clubs and fans don't care about the worldwide club competitions because most of the time these days, South America shows them up, and Europeans can't admit that the best club football might be played on someone else's soil... It's like the peek-a-boo games a child plays, if we don't watch it clearly it's not happening, right?

It'll be interesting to see what the new invitees think about this proposal... and if they'll take Rangers now, because I'm sure they'll jump on board...

I bet the next card to be played, however, will come from the Premiership or La Liga, saying any club that boycotts UEFA's Champions League reforms is booted from the domestic league. Force their hands and make the boys go all-or-nothing.

There was a third cup (Second, actually) european competition, the Cup Winner´s Cup. Less important than the European Cup ( the Champions´ Cup) but more than the UEFA cup. Tuesdays were for the Cup Winner´s Cup, Wednesdays for Champions, Thursdays for the poor relative which is the UEFA cup. They ended it to be able to stage and show more champions league games. Might be worth reconsidering that, it has an history.

The UEFA cup is worth as much as the champions league in terms of coefficient points won. Those coefficients become places and so are extremely important to smaller clubs in each league, or even bigger clubs when they have a bad season.

If the 18 or so wanted to make their own league, it would not make them at all popular with their own league associations due to those coefficients important for other clubs. Arsenal would have to quit their dream of ever winning it and getting the complete set of european cups, I doubt the 18 would ever really agree to go for it in block, rather than a blackmailing bluff .... Also 18 clubs, always the same ones, no matter how glamorous, would not be necessarily as exciting as the larger CL and UEFA cup with always surprises from unexpected clubs from unexpected countries. And new competitions usually just do not have the same importance in fans and players´ minds as do the old historical ones. The Champions´ league worked because it took over from the European Cup almost seamlessly, only the qualification varied, the dates, the trophy, the history was transposed. If 18 clubs chose to not participate on it, their problem, but lots of others would still love to win it and claim superiority over winning it because it *is* THE same european cup, no matter who decides to not participate. FIFA has tried to create new worldwide club competitions about which no european club or fan seems to care compared to national leagues and UEFA competitions.

I'm in favour of the Champions League seeing minimal changes in it's form, as well as the UEFA cup having minimal change in the future.

But I think that Platini and the G-14 would be happy if they brought back a 3rd European Cup (a real one, not some Intertoto s***). That cup could be more open to "small" nations, with a "reverse" position qualification : 1 for England, Italy and Spain, then 2 for France and Germany, all the way to 4-5 for the less glamourous nations that are Estonia, Belarus and Georgia...

On a different note, what needs to be revised is the diffference between winning the UEFA Cup and the Champions League in financial terms... 39M for winning the CL last season for Milan, 32M for finalists Liverpool... And barely 6.25M for UEFA Cup winners Sevilla... Sure the CL is "more important", but perhaps winning 10M more or simply the double would be enough to mark the gap between the two competitions... The amounts "saved" could also be used to fund the "third" european competition I dream of...

Unflinching Triumph! :-)
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About this G14 threat: I don't like the idea of having the cup winners compete for a CL spot. Otherwise I don't have a problem opening the competition up a bit. In the end, having more high profile teams in the UEFA Cup means, that this competition gets some of its former glamour back.

I also think that the clubs probably blink first. And TBH, even if they don't, they should try and set up their breakaway league, and see how it works out for them.

My God, I miss Lennart Johansson. Remember when it was all good times and arguing about female players' shorts?

In any case, I think Bob is right. This is just political theater stemming from what Platini had to do to get elected. There's no way he'll let the Champions League break up so f***ing Maccabi Haifa has an easier route to the group stage. He'll keep plugging away Millwall in the press while the G-14 pay for those gorgeous Michel Platini haircuts.

What will probably happen is that they take all the new G-14 invitees and create a Super League with first and second divisions. Only the second division losers get relegated back into their domestic leagues, thus making most of the domestic leagues even more irrelevant.

Any way you put it, though, "European Super League" is a euphemism for "nuclear deterrent."

I know it scares the hell out of everyone because we're all football fans and football fans are inherently afraid of change, but I think a properly structured European superleague would be pretty damned cool. The way I would do it would be to have a huge relegation / promotion section, though, which I doubt the big teams will agree to. I would set it up so the bottom six to eight teams would be replaced each year by the domestic champions of their leagues. It won't happen, though. The big teams are powerful, but I'm not sure breaking away is really the most profitable choice for them. It feels like its finally coming to a head, though.

Would people really care to watch Lokomotiv Moscow vs. Rapid Vienna or Arsenal vs. Barcelona? Sadly, it's the age of the big clubs.

2 words.... f-k em..... let them have their own pissy little league and drink their tea from golden encrusted tea pots. no player is bigger than the club, no club is bigger than the worlds football assocation.

The two people staring look like fat versions of Journey's Steve Perry and Nick Lachey.