It’s time for UEFA to be proactive and convert the Champions League and make it become the Super League that most clubs so desperately seek. The big European clubs keep discussing creating a Super League and UEFA needs to realize they must to satisfy the needs of both clubs and the fans. UEFA has to embrace the idea and embrace it quick, because failure to do so will be costly.
The Champions League was launched by UEFA in 1955 as the European Champion Clubs' Cup, although everyone called it the European Cup before taking on its current name in 1992. It was only open to the European domestic league champions until deciding to expand to include runner ups in 1997 before expanding to include clubs who finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the big leagues. With so many non-champions competing in the Champions League, it doesn’t justify carrying its current name anymore. Nevertheless, UEFA made changes to its most prized tournament to satisfy the European elite clubs.
The last time UEFA tweaked the Champions League format was in 2003 after they dropped the awful second group stage. Now, UEFA has to revamp the Champions League again and turn it into the Super League. It should remain a 32 club competition with the 8 groups of 4 teams, but without allowing the smaller clubs, the minnows, of Europe in it. As much as we love a good underdog Cinderella story, i.e. APOEL FC reaching the Quarter-Finals in 2012, nowadays we look at Ajax and Atalanta advancing to the knock out stages as the Cinderella clubs. Regrettably, the likes of Midtjylland, Ferencváros, Cluj, Plzeň, Molde, Malmo, and BATE belong in the Europa League and not in the Champions League where the competition gets watered down with their presence.
UEFA’s revamp of the Champions League should be simple. As a I previously mentioned, keep the number of participating clubs to 32, but what needs to be changed is who gets to compete in the Champions League. UEFA should keep it the way it is with 8 groups of 4 clubs. These proposed ideas of having one big league of 32 teams or groups with 10+ teams would be a mistake because it will not be entertaining once you’re halfway through the competition and have teams already eliminated with plenty of games to be played with no interest for those clubs and their fans.
As part of the restructuring, UEFA should grant the top five clubs from Spain, England, Italy and Germany automatic qualification to the group stages. If a big club can’t crack the top five, then that’s their problem. UEFA should also continue awarding a spot to the Europa League winner, thus giving those clubs an incentive to win the Europa League, and to make it even more interesting, why not award an additional spot to the league that the winning club belongs to. UEFA should also award two spots for the French, Dutch and Portuguese leagues, which would leave us with just 4 slots left for the remaining clubs from Russia, Turkey, Scotland, and whoever is eligible based on UEFA’s coefficient. It’s far from the fairest or the perfect plan but this new revamp would essentially make every group be a group of death, and not what we commonly see with groups with two big clubs coupled with two minnows, such as FC Barcelona and Juventus with Dynamo Kiev, and Borussia Dortmund and Lazio coupled with Club Brugge and Zenit Saint Petersburg. Even the qualifiers would become more competitive and entertaining for the fans.
Let’s face it, money talks and this is why the big clubs want the Super League; for more money. A product on television has to be entertaining to be a cash cow. At the moment, the Champions League is mostly entertaining during the knockout stages. But when every group is a group of death, then that would ensure that all groups matches would be competitive, and also entertaining must see TV, which in return would allow UEFA to charge networks more for the rights of these games. More money for UEFA means more money for the clubs, which will make everyone happy, except the non-elite European clubs.
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