Platini plans to spike the big guns

[Morten_nogamst_Pedersen]

By JOHN EDWARDS - More by this author » Last updated at 11:36am on 2nd July 2007

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UEFA were on a collision course with Europe's top clubs last night after threatening radical change to the Champions League qualification process.

In a controversial move aimed at addressing the way revenue is being dominated by an elite few, president Michel Platini is planning to limit the number of group places available to top clubs in England, Germany, Spain, Italy and France.


At present, the Premiership's third and fourth-placed teams can expect an untroubled passage into the group stages against inferior opposition in the qualifying round.

Under proposals being considered by UEFA chiefs, teams from the five leading nations would be drawn against each other in an attempt to free up places for smaller clubs, thus possibly ensuring wealth is distributed more widely.

"Some of the big clubs are earning more from the Champions League than their own domestic competition," said UEFA vice-president Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder.

"These are huge amounts and while the clubs concerned might not like it, we want to take some of that money away.

"We want a fairer way of doing things and I know Michel Platini is thinking along the same lines for reforming the qualification procedure. The TV contract for the Champions League runs out in two years and that is when we could possibly end the current system of the big names always facing a small club.

"Maybe we will see the fourth team from England or Spain playing the third team from Germany. I know they will probably be against it, but to my mind it would bring justice to the competition.

"At the moment, it is always the same clubs in the groups, the same clubs raking in all the money. That is not good for the game, because in each of those countries, you have a few clubs getting richer all the time, a few risking bankruptcy trying to catch up and the others just happy to survive."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/sport/football.html?in_article_id=465561&in_page_id=1779

[AFII]

Make it an open draw instead with no seeded teams at all.

[bazza76]

G14 wont be impressed. Too much riding on the Champions League for them to be able to afford to miss out.

[dww]

What a wonderful idea - lets create an even smaller and more powerful elite.

The system is a bit of wreck at the minute ensuring the same big teams from the larger footballing nations dominate but all these current claims will do is mean that the number of teams capable of competing at the highest level will reduce in the big leagues and there will be one or two more crap teams in the CL group stages.

We have gone too far down the commercialised route in football with inflated player salaries and values to realistically be able to turn it aroun with this sort of ill thought through short term plan. There needs to be a way to redistribute the CL money in an effort to prevent the creation of a de facto eurpean super league consisting of the same teams each year doing well. However this plan simply means we will have less good group games as the finance is still split according to advertising/broadcast revenue from each country. This is the worst sort of superficial moronic bollock from Platini as usual.

Any change in the way the CL is organised needs to be done over the long term.

The best way to address the balance IMO is to increase the quotas of homegrown/trained players needed in a team to compete. It will cause problems for English teams on a selfish note but in the long term it will mean that the PL elite invest more in youth development and English players in general. It may also allow some smaller teams with a good youth setup (for example Ajax) to do more consistantly well.

There are obvious downsided to this plan and it too may lead to a lowering in competition quality but I think it at least tries to have genuine long term positive effects.

Also if I'm honest there have been a lot of crap games in Europe football wise. A lot of the excitement comes from the sense of occasion and the tension of high pressure competition rather than the beauty of the football.

[Red_Polo]

My God, Platini is such a moron.

[Imy]

What a wonderful idea - lets create an even smaller and more powerful elite.

The system is a bit of wreck at the minute ensuring the same big teams from the larger footballing nations dominate but all these current claims will do is mean that the number of teams capable of competing at the highest level will reduce in the big leagues and there will be one or two more crap teams in the CL group stages.

We have gone too far down the commercialised route in football with inflated player salaries and values to realistically be able to turn it aroun with this sort of ill thought through short term plan. There needs to be a way to redistribute
the CL money in an effort to prevent the creation of a de facto eurpean super league consisting of the same teams each year doing well. However this plan simply means we will have less good group games as the finance is still split according to advertising/broadcast revenue from each country. This is the worst sort of superficial moronic bollock from Platini as usual.

Any change in the way the CL is organised needs to be done over the long term.

The best way to address the balance IMO is to increase the quotas of homegrown/trained players needed in a team to compete. It will cause problems for English teams on a selfish note but in the long term it will mean that the PL elite invest more in youth development and English players in general. It may also allow some smaller teams with a good youth setup (for example Ajax) to do more consistantly well.

There are obvious downsided to this plan and it too may lead to a lowering in competition quality but I think it at least tries to have genuine long term positive effects.

Also if I'm honest there have been a lot of crap games in Europe football wise. A lot of the excitement comes from the sense of occasion and the tension of high pressure competition rather than the beauty of the football.

Totally agree.

I don't to watch some unknown Israeli team or Eastern European team in the Champions League proper in place of a Bayern, Real, Liverpool, Inter etc.

The home grown players idea is the best way forward as this will even the playing field, the most technically gifted players/teams will progress in the competition and maybe not the richest.

Platini is plonker.

[Dhav]

Great idea by Platini. Let's make it a poorer and weaker competition by having the top teams play off against each other so teams like Liverpool, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Milan etc can get knocked while teams like Slovan Liberec, Sparta Prague and Helsingborgs (no disrespect) can have an easier passage through to the group stages.

Wasn't the whole point of allowing 3rd and 4th place teams from top leagues in the European Cup to make it a higher standard and more competitive? If this happens there will be even more dead rubber group games than there are now, and more dead rubber knock out games as well probably.

With all due respect, I don't want to see another Red Star Belgrade and Steua Bucharest progress and get to the final so they can bore us rigid and play for penalties.

[The_weatherman]

I have more concerns about how the Premiership as a whole is getting richer nad richer and leaving La Liga and Serie A behind and how the distribution of wealth within each league is unfair.

Plus, if this goes ahead, doesn´t it mean there will one club in every lesser league, Sweden, Norway, Denmark etc. that will dominatetheir league since they got to the group stages first?

[Chiccada]

If the chmapions League is the premier competition in Europe, the premier teams should be the ones playing in it.

If they want to do something about the amount of money some teams are getting, just distribute the entire tv & prize fund more evenly, its not that difficult.

[Dhav]

Totally agree.

I don't to watch some unknown Israeli team or Eastern European team in the Champions League proper in place of a Bayern, Real, Liverpool, Inter etc.

The home grown players idea is the best way forward as this will even the playing field, the most technically gifted players/teams will progress in the competition and maybe not the richest.

Platini is plonker.

Platini obviously would rather have an Arsenal 5-1 Croatia Zagreb match in the group stages proper rather than in the qualifying rounds

They need to look at their objectives and consider whether this is the best way to achieve it. If they want to spread the money more equally, they need to think of a way that will not harm the integrity and excitement of the competition. The group stages are quite dull as it, a deliberate policy to flood it with weaker sides will not have the TV companies queuing to pay more money or broadcast those games.

[Dhav]

I have more concerns about how the Premiership as a whole is getting richer nad richer and leaving La Liga and Serie A behind and how the distribution of wealth within each league is unfair.

Plus, if this goes ahead, doesn´t it mean there will one club in every lesser league, Sweden, Norway, Denmark etc. that will dominatetheir league since they got to the group stages first?

Very good point

A case in point would be Rosenborg, how many times did they win their league in a row on the back of getting through to the group stages?

If a Cypriot team were ever to make it through, like Anorthosis were very close to doing a couple of times, they would earn enough money from the group stages to dominate the Cypriot league for years.

[dww]

It really is an unbelievably dumb plan. To annoy all the teams who bring money into the competition with a scheme that at best really only benefits the second rank of teams from France and Turkey and the like.

[The_weatherman]

It really is an unbelievably dumb plan. To annoy all the teams who bring money into the competition with a scheme that at best really only benefits the second rank of teams from France and Turkey and the like.

That´s right, at best too, as it will lead to monoploy in those leagues ala Lyon in France, and as Dhavlos points out, Rosenborg in Norway. How did Platini get the job

[Henno]

but Platini has no choice but to try and push it through

the redistribution of champions league wealth was one of the cornerstones of his election manifesto

he wooed the poorer eastern federations by promising them more spots in the group stage draw and now he has to be seen to push it through

[MindGuerrillas]

He'll have difficulty doing this though. I think that the current TV and sponsorship deals still have another 3 or 4 years left on them. He can't change anything until these expire. By then, he himself will be up for election again.