New Champions League at 2024 and on

[bjkman1903]

And as usual the gEt SeEdEd excuse. Yeah, build your coefficient, it only a few years of not getting smacked by an unlucky draw.
And tHiS iS nOt ThE iSsUe, aka "I don't have an argument so I'll dismiss this".
dEseRvE tHeIr PlAcE oN tHe PiTcH. I guess Lens or Newcastle didn't play against Liverpool, City, Arsenal, PSG, Marseille, etc.

What do you prefer ?
Antwerp getting AEK in qualifying rounds and then getting trashed in CL Group Stage ? Or Antwerp playing competitive games in EL/ECL ?

For me, failing in CL qualifiers is not the end of the world.

What if Lens play in French league ? Since other teams have not that privilege, they should play qualifiers but not them because they finished above Marseille ? (which actually even failed against Pana, but yeah, let's give them direct access next time because French league is stronger than Greek one)

[Overgame]

And as usual the gEt SeEdEd excuse. Yeah, build your coefficient, it only a few years of not getting smacked by an unlucky draw.
And tHiS iS nOt ThE iSsUe, aka "I don't have an argument so I'll dismiss this".
dEseRvE tHeIr PlAcE oN tHe PiTcH. I guess Lens or Newcastle didn't play against Liverpool, City, Arsenal, PSG, Marseille, etc.

What do you prefer ?
Antwerp getting AEK in qualifying rounds and then getting trashed in CL Group Stage ? Or Antwerp playing competitive games in EL/ECL ?

For me, failing in CL qualifiers is not the end of the world.

What if Lens play in French league ? Since other teams have not that privilege, they should play qualifiers but not them because they finished above Marseille ? (which actually even failed against Pana, but yeah, let's give them direct access next time because French league is stronger than Greek one)

What do you prefer, Coppenhagen and Galatasaray getting trashed in the qualifiers or eliminated United from the CL?
And talking about priviledge, this is getting funny. This goes both ways you know.

[Lorric]

The real question is whether the last placed GS CL clubs deserved and justified their places in the CL this year? We are talking about Manchester United, Sevilla, Union Berlin, Salzburg, Celtic, Newcastle, Crvena Zvezda and Antwerp. I would say that none of them deserved and justified a place in the CL, the only exception being Newcastle, who won 5 points and were eliminated in a really difficult group.
Antwerp was the only one to qualify for the CL, eliminating only the weak AEK, which was eliminated in the EL. All other last-placed clubs got direct places in the CL thanks to UEFA privileges.
Realistically, those clubs with the games they showed wouldn't even pass the groups in EL. This shows all the pointlessness of direct places in the CL, as well as the qualification system where weak Antwerp goes into the CL with one elimination of AEK.

AEK were in the EL's group of death and still got 4pts though.

[babaluj1]

The real question is whether the last placed GS CL clubs deserved and justified their places in the CL this year? We are talking about Manchester United, Sevilla, Union Berlin, Salzburg, Celtic, Newcastle, Crvena Zvezda and Antwerp. I would say that none of them deserved and justified a place in the CL, the only exception being Newcastle, who won 5 points and were eliminated in a really difficult group.
Antwerp was the only one to qualify for the CL, eliminating only the weak AEK, which was eliminated in the EL. All other last-placed clubs got direct places in the CL thanks to UEFA privileges.
Realistically, those clubs with the games they showed wouldn't even pass the groups in EL. This shows all the pointlessness of direct places in the CL, as well as the qualification system where weak Antwerp goes into the CL with one elimination of AEK.

AEK were in the EL's group of death and still got 4pts though.

Antwerp is only sixth with 16 points behind the leader in the Belgian league. That alone says that it is not quality for the CL. Antwerp was lucky to start in PO CL and draw AEK. AEK managed to get to PO ECL against the never weaker Dinamo ZG, scoring a goal in stoppage time. A lot of stronger teams than Antwerp were eliminated in the CL qualifiers, Rangers, Sparta, Marseille... In the knockout qualifiers, the stronger teams are often eliminated, and the weaker ones get through with luck and a good draw.

[Overgame]

"they shouldn't get direct access"
Antwerp didn't and qualified as unseeded
"Didn't matter, they shouldn't be in CL because reasons"

Got it, your are doing some special pleading.

[bjkman1903]

And as usual the gEt SeEdEd excuse. Yeah, build your coefficient, it only a few years of not getting smacked by an unlucky draw.
And tHiS iS nOt ThE iSsUe, aka "I don't have an argument so I'll dismiss this".
dEseRvE tHeIr PlAcE oN tHe PiTcH. I guess Lens or Newcastle didn't play against Liverpool, City, Arsenal, PSG, Marseille, etc.

What do you prefer ?
Antwerp getting AEK in qualifying rounds and then getting trashed in CL Group Stage ? Or Antwerp playing competitive games in EL/ECL ?

For me, failing in CL qualifiers is not the end of the world.

What if Lens play in French league ? Since other teams have not that privilege, they should play qualifiers but not them because they finished above Marseille ? (which actually even failed against Pana, but yeah, let's give them direct access next time because French league is stronger than Greek one)

What do you prefer, Coppenhagen and Galatasaray getting trashed in the qualifiers or eliminated United from the CL?
And talking about priviledge, this is getting funny. This goes both ways you know.

Answering a question by another question ?

Funny that you are talking about getting trashed in the qualifiers. Coppenhagen and Galatasaray could have defeated mighty Manchester United. Galatasaray even did it in the past, when big teams were not protected by UEFA yet.

I'll still answer your question even if you didn't answer mine - I would rather watch Turkish teams in EL & ECL so I don't care if they lose in qualifiers.

[Overgame]

What do you prefer ?
Antwerp getting AEK in qualifying rounds and then getting trashed in CL Group Stage ? Or Antwerp playing competitive games in EL/ECL ?

For me, failing in CL qualifiers is not the end of the world.

What if Lens play in French league ? Since other teams have not that privilege, they should play qualifiers but not them because they finished above Marseille ? (which actually even failed against Pana, but yeah, let's give them direct access next time because French league is stronger than Greek one)

What do you prefer, Coppenhagen and Galatasaray getting trashed in the qualifiers or eliminatING United from the CL?
And talking about priviledge, this is getting funny. This goes both ways you know.

Answering a question by another question ?

Funny that you are talking about getting trashed in the qualifiers. Coppenhagen and Galatasaray could have defeated mighty Manchester United. Galatasaray even did it in the past, when big teams were not protected by UEFA yet.

I'll still answer your question even if you didn't answer mine - I would rather watch Turkish teams in EL & ECL so I don't care if they lose in qualifiers.

Yes, answering a question with another question, so what? Fixed my comment, I am exhausted. And bored to read a wall not even understanding that the domestic leagues are qualifiers for the CL. I am done.

[FrancoisD]

Years of Dragonite calling domestic leagues "glorified neighborhood friendlies" (ie far less important than the preliminary round of CL between San Marin and Andorra) seem to have brainwashed too many people on this forum, Overgame, I advise you to just ignore their stupid rants against "unfairness" of a system where Gibraltar is not given the same treatment as Spain.

[bjkman1903]

Years of Dragonite calling domestic leagues "glorified neighborhood friendlies" (ie far less important than the preliminary round of CL between San Marin and Andorra) seem to have brainwashed too many people on this forum, Overgame, I advise you to just ignore their stupid rants against "unfairness" of a system where Gibraltar is not given the same treatment as Spain.

The "unfairness" is about top 5 leagues getting too many direct spots in my opinion - you may agree or may not, but please don't call it "stupid" nor say that people have been "brainwashed" by someone else.

I'd prefer a system where all teams (except domestic champions) play qualifiers but never said that Gibraltar should be treated the same as Spain.
Should Gibraltar teams start in Q1 (or preliminary rounds) and Spanish teams in Q4/PO round that is totally fine.

[FrancoisD]

You still don't get it: for countries with a big ranking, "the domestic leagues are qualifiers". So all teams already play qualifiers.

[Ambro]

You still don't get it: for countries with a big ranking, "the domestic leagues are qualifiers". So all teams already play qualifiers.

If the domestic leagues are the qualifiers, some might argue that only one team should qualify from each league. If you finish 4th in Premier League for instance, how can you claim that you are eligible to play in an competition to decide the best in Europe when 3 teams are better than you in your own national league?

[FrancoisD]

You still don't get it: for countries with a big ranking, "the domestic leagues are qualifiers". So all teams already play qualifiers.

If the domestic leagues are the qualifiers, some might argue that only one team should qualify from each league. If you finish 4th in Premier League for instance, how can you claim that you are eligible to play in an competition to decide the best in Europe when 3 teams are better than you in your own national league?

Then there should be only one team qualified through the group stage, not 2 as today.

[Overgame]

You still don't get it: for countries with a big ranking, "the domestic leagues are qualifiers". So all teams already play qualifiers.

If the domestic leagues are the qualifiers, some might argue that only one team should qualify from each league. If you finish 4th in Premier League for instance, how can you claim that you are eligible to play in an competition to decide the best in Europe when 3 teams are better than you in your own national league?

World Cup. Confederations don't have the same number of spots. Do you have issues with teams finishing 2nd of their group in Europe and still qualifying? Or 3rd in Asia? Or 5th in South America?

[bjkman1903]

You still don't get it: for countries with a big ranking, "the domestic leagues are qualifiers". So all teams already play qualifiers.

The problem for me is the number of direct spots.

If you look at each UEFA reform, some domestic champions lost direct access to group stage in favor of top 4 (now 5) leagues.

This means that it is an arbitrary decision of UEFA to give more direct spots to the most powerful leagues.

The system is so that if Real Madrid gets a 0-0-6 in CL, and Shaktar gets 6 wins, Real will likely earn more money than Shaktar (TV rights + coefficient bonus)

If number 3 and 4 of big leagues are so strong, they shouldn't fear anyone in the qualifiers.

Anyway, we will see if things change now that Superleague has become a reality.

[Dragonite]

Years of Dragonite calling domestic leagues "glorified neighborhood friendlies" (ie far less important than the preliminary round of CL between San Marin and Andorra) seem to have brainwashed too many people on this forum, Overgame, I advise you to just ignore their stupid rants against "unfairness" of a system where Gibraltar is not given the same treatment as Spain.

1 - I call them glorified training sessions

2 - games between teams from Andorra and San Marino where none actually makes it to the group stages also mean nothing to me, despite being an international match, and so hierarchically above a glorified training session

3 - people are free to make their own conclusions. And for every forum member that actually uses his head, there are dozens of parrots that just repeat the things they hear without questioning them

4 - I agree with @bjkman1903 that all teams should play qualifiers. Or if some teams "deserve" to be exempt from qualifiers and others don't, I disagree with how UEFA finds one set of teams and the other. To me there's a lot more merit in winning 1 CL match than in winning 100 GTS

5 - The "unfairness" doesn't stop in how teams qualify, it continues in other things like revenue distribution, refereeing, etc.

6 - The way I see it, "brainwashing" is having people in Tunisia watching a Wolverhampton vs Fulham English GTS. They should watch their local clubs like Espérance, Étoile du Sahel, etc, but they're "brainwashed" and spend time and money in something meaningless that they believe it's a "top top must watch"

7 - Last but not least, I don't agree with simpletons that have decades of accumulated frustrations because the "precious" doesn't get the results that they'd like it to have, and therefore want to "destroy everything" so that others will also finally feel the despair that they do, and every single thing like this so-called "super league" is the solution to every problem

My remarks are constructive, with the goal of improving things, and more often than not they end up becoming true.