The State of the European Cup?

Metaphysical said:

while I would like a return to the KO competition just for the sheer level of epic it would be, the european cup is only losing its magic because of the constant presence of the english in the latter stages. yeah it may never have had the magic of the KO tournament but it was still good viewing.

and I dispute that magic issue anyway, no team has won the CL back to back, or three times in a row (as happened TWICE in a row in the 70's, oh yeah, sheer magic!) much less FIVE times in a row! we haven't had 7 years of winners from the same f'n country nor a final as fucking atrocious as '91 - people are needlessly romanticising it because it's the past. alright in the 60's it was clearly the tits, but the 60's (and late 50's, to be fair) was awesome all-around for football.

and bollocks to it being harder to win back then. you can't argue it's losing it's magic coz of all the top teams and then say it's also easier to win. it most definitely is harder to win now because you play more top-teams full of top-players.

you needed more luck on your side to win back then. KO tournaments always have an element of luck to them, which is why everyone always says a league win is the barometer of a truly great side (which is why kaka can stick that undeserved ballon d'or up his arse). I like the european cup, and while I would find the return of a straight KO tournament fun for the unpredictability (although again, how real is that?) and excitement of knockout football, it's fine the way it is especially as platini, inch by inch, is creating more diversity in the tournaments makeup.





I agree with eddy that playing teams from the same country with any regularity is boring, which is why I'd like entries cut down even further. in fact I had an idea for reshaping european competition that would actually be a very interesting experiment to prove whether people honestly believe these things they say or if they're just having a whinge coz they can.

reintroduce the cup winners cup for cup-winners. straight KO.

champions league is for champions only. straight KO.

all that's inbetween (so like, places 2-6 in the top leagues) is the europa league. make it as big, bloated and convoluted as you like. group stages, four-legged ties, whatever. go nuts!

I can almost guarantee you that more people would watch the europa league.

this is like when fans of the NFL say they wanna see more old fashioned "smash-mouth football", but then when someone actually gives them that (XFL) they realise that "smash-mouth football" was kinda underwhelming and lacked the glitz of the modern game, so they stuck with their shiny new product. or when man utd won the club world cup and everyone saying that it's shit because of the other teams being unknowns - well that's bollocks, they all won their respective continental competitions and earned the right to be there. if fifa started admitting big teams willy nilly people would then say it has no prestige. and it's not an auto-win for europe, we went there with a superior attitude and got beat, so did liverpool.

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AnfieldEd said:

I still stand by my points I made 4 years ago!

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