Champions League 2014-15

[Kenneth]

But it makes his punditry pointless, in addition to gormless.

[Chris]

He's a cunt. Dont think he's said much wrong tonight though, from memory he said Roma's keeper didnt have much to do, City's fans are crap, they wont just roll over Bayern like Chiles thinks and a few other bits. Lots of negatives I suppose but then their performances are ****.

[Kenneth]

I think he said that he didn't remember the Roma keeper making a save, which he obviously did several times. If they have to go and win in Roma then they're out. He's probably just too stupid to articulate his point and it just sounds moany.

[Bender]

‘When you come here it just doesn't have a European night feel to it. You go to Liverpool, you go to Old Trafford, you go to Chelsea, they have a special feeling for it.'

Scholes also suggested that the City fans don't appreciate how fortunate they are to be facing Europe's elite clubs.
‘Tonight I don't think there is [a special atmosphere]. I don't think they realise what a big game this is.

‘They've got the team, they've definitely got the players, the quality is definitely there, but do the crowd realise how lucky they are to be in this competition? I don't think they do.

‘At quarter past seven and there's empty seats everywhere.

DailyMail

Yesterdays Att: 37,509

[Bender]

[McDermotX]

Missed this gem from Nani the other night.......mistook the ref for his own player

[G]

UEFA to restrict top-seed status to title winners

UEFA is set to introduce changes to the Champions League so only the winners of the highest-ranked leagues and the title holder will be among the top-seeded teams.

UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino confirmed in London that the group-stage change from next season only has to be "ratified" in December on by the executive committee.

Currently, UEFA ranks clubs over five years of results, leaving national champions Manchester City, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain among No. 2-seeded teams this season. Arsenal and FC Porto, who placed fourth and third in their respective leagues last season, were included in Pot 1.

Infantino said at the Leaders sports summit that "people had difficulties in understanding how the champion of a country is in a lower pot than the third ranked in that country."

About time too. Stupid system as it was.

http://www.apnews.com/ap/db_307134/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=fsRtWyKC

[Chris]

Would have thought Barca and Real ego's would have tried to block that.

[Trippendicular]

About time too. Stupid system as it was.

http://www.apnews.com/ap/db_307134/c...tguid=fsRtWyKC

This is more stupid. Rewards City (if they win the league) and the Russian league winners and that's about it. So a team of oil money that can't sell out their stadium... and City.

[G]

It's how it should be. No way Arsenal, perennial 4th place winners should be ahead of the league winners regardless how they got the money to fund their league win. It doesn't go far enough for me though. There shouldn't be any country protection after the top seeds are drawn into groups. It should be a free for all in the rest of the draw, anybody can get anybody.

[ChesterDave]

It sounds flawed in that the keague winners of the highest rank leagues get seeded. Doesn't seem to take into account the actual team. If someone came from nowhere to win the league - Southampton for arguments sake - they shouldn't get top spot because England is a top league. They should be ranked low. But that means all other English teams have to be below and will be filling pots 3 and 4 with the other German and Spanish sides.

[G]

If they came from nowhere and won the league they'd deserve their top billing cos they beat those well established sides on the way. Really it shouldn't be seeded at all, free for all like the old days

[ChesterDave]

They don't deserve to be ranked above a team from, lets say, Slovenia who win the league 4 times in a row. The English league ranking is higher thanks is part to having more teams earning ranking points. For first time qualifiers to benefit from those rankings is wrong. If they are going to change it then the should rank all the league winners based on the teams individual ranking. Then all the seconds, thirds etc.

Based on this years CL (ignoring how it would have differed in the qualifying rounds) would give;

Top Seeds
Athletico
Benfico
Bayern
Juve
PSG
Shaktar
Basel
Olympiacos


Pot 4
Leverkusen
Arsenal
Bilbao
Chelsea
Real Madrid
Napoli
Porto
Lille

[G]

Doesn't matter what pot Real or Chelsea are in they are winning their group. If you win the league in one of the big leagues you deserve top billing imo. There's only 8 groups so only 8 team's can get top billing so they have to be sorted some way. How thats done fairly I don't know but this move is better than it was because a team who wins **** all every year shouldn't get top billing simply because they qualify every year.

Or just scrap seedings and bung them all into one big pot and pick the groups from it, no country protection either. Equal status for all.

[Trippendicular]

Doesn't matter what pot Real or Chelsea are in they are winning their group. If you win the league in one of the big leagues you deserve top billing imo. There's only 8 groups so only 8 team's can get top billing so they have to be sorted some way. How thats done fairly I don't know but this move is better than it was because a team who wins **** all every year shouldn't get top billing simply because they qualify every year.

Or just scrap seedings and bung them all into one big pot and pick the groups from it, no country protection either. Equal status for all.

Surely that defeats the purpose? If Real or Chelsea don't win their leagues and are in Pot 2 instead, what's the difference?