With everything going on the last few days, one common underlying subject is the structure/format of competition in football itself. I find it quite interesting. In fact it made me reflect on any competition creates for sports all over, whether individual or team. How do you create an event for the sport that factors in merit, sporting competitiveness and tradition, make it entertaining for the audience, have it open to lots of representation/inclusion, and has the potential to make lots of revenue and be financially sustainable? Obviously you can put more or less stress on each of these factors..
So I’m interested to hear peoples thoughts on how they would create and format a European competition for football right now. Obviously the CL is the current model, the ESL was the shiiiif model Perez has dreamed up. Past iterations of the European cup have had different formats. Any formats you’d like to see?
Personally, being a bit boring but I think the current CL is pretty balanced as it is. The KO stages of the competition still have high drama, entertainment and tends to see some of the big teams face each other. The group stages are not as exciting of course but still necessary to basically make less of the competition down to the luck of knock out cup games. Quantity of games seems about right (maybe I’m just used to it).
One thing I’ve thought about is that I probably would find it more entertaining if for example the top 6 of the PL, Serie A, and La Liga got CL spaces over some of the smallest teams that get CL. But I don’t think I could justify that vs making sure a European competition is represented by teams across Europe, and giving smaller clubs the chances of CL revenue. Equally increasing the numbers of CL places in large leagues would make the CL race less exciting.
The new CL coming in seems a lot worse for me with the increase in quantity of games. I don’t actually mind the ‘Swiss model’ to replace an individual group stage.
How would you Structure a European Comp?
posted on 21/4/21
Maybe...
Top 6 teams from each of the Big 3 leagues. Top 3 from Germany & France. Then another 8 teams; maybe 2 each from Holland & Portugal and the 4 winners of the next best leagues based on coefficient.
Split the 32 into two groups of 16. Each team plays 15 games in the regular season. Top 8 from each group make the playoffs. Then a one-and-done format til the final.
This way, you limit the number of teams with no real following in the tournament, and still get plenty of games in total.
The playoffs will be good with the one-and-done format as well (2 legged affairs are incredibly dull to casual fans).
posted on 21/4/21
I do enjoy the home and away KOs but a single KO comp would also be intriguing.
I also kinda liked the KO format of CL we had forced to COVID - it happened all in a few weeks over summer in one country hosting the KO stage. UEFA could probably make some money getting countries to bid for it, atmosphere would probs be good.
posted on 21/4/21
The thing I really don't like is that the 3rd place CL teams drop into the Europa League, surely that's just ridiculous.
In terms of other improvements for the CL it would be interesting to see how it went with no seeding or national split in groups.
Other idea is to completely do away with the Europa League and have a single tournament with a far larger pool of teams that's knock out only
posted on 22/4/21
Only respective league champions should play. Organise a league of 10 league champions, pick automatically from the major leagues and create qualifiers for the lower leagues to complete the 10. Play 18 home and away games across the season to determine the real Champions league trophy 🏆winner.
Scrap Europa so domestic leagues and cups will be competitive again.
posted on 22/4/21
Keep the same format but scrap dropping into the Europa. Except for the qualifying rounds.Once you go out of a competition thats it .No 2nd chances .Therefore less games in the Europa.
Not sure of the format of this Conference League but I would make it straight knockout.
F
posted on 22/4/21
Remove seedings and same nation protection.
posted on 22/4/21
Have the first round as a 2 legged knockout and the 2nd round as the group stage.
So could go like this
- 32 teams play the rounds proper.
- The 6 champions of the top 6 leagues + EL and CL winner are automatically in the 3rd round group stage. 7th and 8th best leagues champions if EL/CL winners are 2 of the winners of the top 6 leagues
- The remaining 24 teams play the first 2 rounds
- In the first round, the worst seeded 16 teams play a 2 legged knockout tie
- In the second round, the 8 winners of round 1 play the next 8 best seeded teams.
- In the 3rd round, the 8 winners from round 2 join the league champions and EL/CL champions for the 3rd round group stage. There are 2 seeds so that 2 teams in each group are the champions group and the other 2 are the play off group.
- Top 2 go to quarter finals/ semi finals/ final etc....
That way the poorer teams get knocked out sooner and the group stages are a bit more exciting. If a traditionally poorer team gets to group stage it will be from merit in both last season league campaign but also this seasons european campaign.
It also means being champions of the league has a bit more meaning than 2nd/3rd/4th place
posted on 22/4/21
Personally Id scrap the Europey. A competition for teams placed too low to qualify for the top competition has never sat well with me. Maybe a return of the old cup winners cup type format with the winners of the FA Cup and League Cup qualifying, or runners up if the winners are in CL.
posted on 22/4/21
comment by Vorsprung durch Tuchel (U1641)
posted 1 day ago
I wouldn’t want just champions. Some leagues are much weaker than others and would likely soon be knocked out. Not many games too.
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Thinking about it it would make much more sense for this type of format to take place during summer as a replacement for all respective team’s pre season tours. Just have top 10-12 teams in Europe champions play some sort of summer quick knock out tournament
posted on 23/4/21
Keep the CL/EL format but change it slightly. In contrast to everyone else I say fewer teams from bigger leagues and more teams from smaller. No 4th place spot in PL for UK case. Also no more of this, "CL group losers get 2nd bite at Euro cherry," crap either. That 2nd go for those big clubs is stopping much needed money from going to smaller clubs as they mostly get knocked out by the CL dumpees so never get to play the more valuable matches.
It's all about the money. Our current format sees football's top 10 or so European clubs raking it all in and in some cases blatantly stealing it out of smaller clubs hands. Spread the money around more and the result will be the improvement of the smaller clubs who will gain vastly more finance as a result of big club cash gluttony being blocked. It could improve European football as a whole doing this as it would provide all the European clubs finishing in those "Just outside CL," places most if not every year, a lot more money. In turn allowing them the means to improve and in some cases take the next step up to serious CL contention. End result after a few seasons should be something each league gaining at least one more serious CL contender and all clubs regularly qualifying for EL gradually getting stronger, thus raising the overall quality of football in that competition also. Just got to stop the top few from being so so god damned GREEDY!