Italian and Spanish giants push for new Champions League revolution as Premier League popularity continues to alarm clubs


A new breakaway Champions League remains a serious option for some clubs ahead of crunch talks over potentially radical changes to the structure of European club football.

The vast global popularity of the Premier League is continuing to alarm clubs across other major leagues, who are increasingly looking to European competition as their main potential area of revenue growth.

A series of meetings has been held to discuss options which, as well as a new tournament, also include pushing for significant change to a Champions League that would become more concentrated between the most market-able clubs in Europe.

Rest in the link below

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/07/30/revealed-italian-and-spanish-giants-push-for-new-champions-leagu/

There will be a change sooner or later, we all know that.

And in the end we'll have Barcelona, Madrid and Bayern in the semis (:

This would be an injustice imo.

The actual format of Champions League is great for the fans. There is already many big clubs + smaller teams that can dream of achieving something special.  From Glasgow to Instanbul people dream of the Champions League.

It's the football federations of many countries, that should look at themselves in the mirror. Is it BPL or Bundesliga's fault if other leagues financial state is a mess and they can't sign proper commercial partnerships ? Champions League should be seen as a prestige bonus, while domestic competitions provide the biggest cheques.

Milan, for example, is a very popular brand. Yet the club is crappily managed and the product displayed on the field is awful nowadays. They struggle to finish beyond 5th place every year: of course this decreases the marketability of Serie A ! And this goes on for many clubs btw, stop wasting money and actually improve your product please instead of blaming others.

Can teams from Glasgow to Istanbul really dream of it though?

Looking at the last 20 years only in 1 edition do you see any teams in the final that are not from the top 4 leagues (Spain, England, Germany, Italy), just the Porto and Monaco final 04 breaks 20 years of the same "elite" in CL finals.

We don't know the details of any of the propositions, but it may be worth looking into.

Of course it's dreams only.
The last time a club not from the top4 leagues made it to the semis was Lyon in 09/10 I think. But it's expected to change because of PSG. However France should have the potential to be part of that group anyway.
If we exclude the top 5 we have to got back to 04/05 to find a semi final with a club not from these leagues. The Champions League is a a competition for the big leagues. The small leagues are allowed into it because it raises revenue but that's really it. To call changes an injustice is a joke because there has never been "justice". Was it just to suddenly allow 4 clubs from the top leagues in it so they could make even more money?

Of course this won't be just either. Why would it?

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't these "big clubs" basically asking for the UEFA Cup back?
- Knock-out only: check
- Only the bigger (better-marketed teams): check
- Less physical/logistical demands on the club (due to reduced fixtures): check

Didnt really get it. So are these so called clubs scared of EPL's money or are they of their quality (which they dont have btw). England still is way behind LaLiga in terms of coefficients points and is only edging SerieA right now. So unless and until the amount of teams that that can come out of England to participate in the event remains the same why are they bothered ? Popularity doesnt mean quality and success. I assume they are scared of the Hull's and Middlesbrough's snapping up their players right now more than their prospects in the CL.

zigra wrote:Of course it's dreams only.
The last time a club not from the top4 leagues made it to the semis was Lyon in 09/10 I think. But it's expected to change because of PSG. However France should have the potential to be part of that group anyway.
If we exclude the top 5 we have to got back to 04/05 to find a semi final with a club not from these leagues. The Champions League is a a competition for the big leagues. The small leagues are allowed into it because it raises revenue but that's really it. To call changes an injustice is a joke because there has never been "justice". Was it just to suddenly allow 4 clubs from the top leagues in it so they could make even more money?

Of course this won't be just either. Why would it?

Talking of "dream", doesn't just mean lifting the trophy, mate.
Don't you think APOEL Nicosia were excited to reach quarter finals in 2012, and face Real Madrid ? What about that day Celtic beat Barcelona 2-1 ? There are many examples like that.

You didn't get my point at all, actually. Top 5 leagues have more spots because they have a higher UEFA rank, it's as simple as just For quality standards it's reasonable to have more bigger clubs than less. The actual format allows however some smaller countries #1 team to perform and have a great run if possible.

To me it's one of the best upsides of the Champions League. About the monetary rewards, as i said, i think the first step would be a revamping of most football federations in Europe who obviously lose a lot of money.

Pls go, last thing I need is a Juve fan telling me what we small league club fans dream of and defending the current CL system as "just".

The English teams won't care tbh. The other leagues are afraid because even smaller teams in England would be able to rival big teams in terms of capita so they will draw most of the mid level talent. The top talent will still go to Madrid and Barcelona and the best young players will probably ply their trade elsewhere but the middle class players will be a free for all.

La Liga first of all needs to sort out its marketing because most people rightly or wrongly feel that only Barcelona and Madrid are the only goo teams and Atleti not winning the cl compounds the problem. They need to start making sure that clubs like Bilbao are marketed to show their history etc. ATM they just use el classico stars to market the league which overshadows everything.

The quality of the EPL might be sub par but the marketing can never be doubted. Best polished turd I've ever seen.

GdS: UEFA plan to grant all the top 4 leagues 3 automatic CL spots with one qualifying spot.

Just because EPL is about to lose that 4th spot

They have like 0.2 difference after this season if things don't change. If Juve manages a good run and the other teams don't scrub, it is gone for england.

rincon wrote:Just because EPL is about to lose that 4th spot

They have like 0.2 difference after this season if things don't change. If Juve manages a good run and the other teams don't scrub, it is gone for england.

Yep.

But this should at least be good news for Serie A as a whole. Huge news infact.

It's commercially illogical.... and legally impossible too I might add.  Just because you no longer want to be part of the Schengen Agreement or EU governance doesn't mean that the UK isn't part of Europe.  These are two separate things.  For example, Russia is in Europe but has nothing to do with the EU or Schengen obviously.

Need one of the italian lads to confirm that this article http://www.gazzetta.it/Calcio/Champions-League/08-08-2016/champions-si-cambia-2018-italia-avra-4-posti-meriti-storici-le-big-160659992455.shtml
says that the top 4 leagues get 3 CL spots and a 4th one that's handed out for so called "historical merit" (so say Bayern finish 10th they'd still get into the CL).

Oh and if there's more in it please do tell Please give us a spot for historical merit too

That sounds dodgy

So you mean it's legit?

@zigra

From that article, from 2018 and on:

Same tournament structure, 32 finalists and 8 groups.

Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga and BPL get 4 spots without need for qualifying playoffs. In this scenario, the top 3 spots in the league qualify for 3 of these spots, while the 4th spot is assigned on historical merit. This historical merit is evaluated based on a "UEFA ranking elaborated on the basis of results with the objective to guarantee a spot to the big teams (example Milan, Inter, Liverpool, United, Chelsea, Benifca...)"

To the medium federations (France, Portugal and Russia) there are 2 assured spots. Another 4/5 spots for the champions of the nations that follow in the ranking (today are Ucraine, Belgium, Netherlands, Turkey and Switzerland). 5-6 spots to assign on playoffs on which some 50 clubs would participate.

"The proposal passes through the election of the new UEFA president, that will happen on September 14th. But the road is traced."

Thank you. But what I don't understand is only the big 4 get the historical-merit spots so why is Benfica in that list of clubs?

I'm not sure why they put Benfica either. Its just what the article says.

Ok, strange but whatever. Maybe they think about giving special spots to some big historic clubs

Great reform tbh. Makes the CL even more just

Borussia M'gladbach has huge historical merit