Has the Champions League lost its magic

A long long time ago. Next years format will be infinitely worse. I know we need the money but most likely getting regular defeats does nothing for me .
 
A long time ago.

Could not give a toss about it anymore, it's a rich club plaything. Same few clubs every year, the rest who qualify are nothing more than whipping boys there to make up the numbers.
 
An utter cash cow of a competition. Realistically, due to club (and national) finances, there’s only ever 5/6 clubs with justifiable hopes of success. Manipulation of qualification and draw rules means it’s no longer an open draw/comp and means that getting to CL is about money for us and most of our level and on a football basis we are EL level. In saying that, that is no slight on us in any way.
 
Time for a super league, the Real Madrid’s, the Bayern’s Man City’s can play each other to their hearts content. We have had many exciting nights playing teams at our own level. Whats the point of teams like Celtic playing in competition year after year and not winning any games, even Timothy must be fed up with that
 
Starting to get boring? Its been boring for years, only worth watching in the later stages as it completely set up for the biggest teams from the biggest leagues. The odd game in the groups are maybe decent and obviously when we are in it outwith that its pretty much a same teams progressing and winning.
 
I think it really went down hill when it came off council TV. Even when sky had it I stopped tuning in as much. Now it’s in TNT I barely watch it. Hardly hear anyone at work talking about it now. Back in the day everyone did as everyone had free access. Also the way the deck is stacked against smaller nations is disgraceful.
 
It should be domestic champions only, whether that’s the league or even a domestic trophy. If they want to keep the top 5 having leads of entries, go back to a straight knockout competition, with no restrictions on seeds or country.

If PSV vs Liverpool is drawn in the 1st round, then so be it.
 
Big D said:
Totally agree with all of this. I can throw in the 70s and 80s too. The game just felt more real and authentic. More raw perhaps, on and off the park. Managers and players pitting their wits and skills against each other. I understand the need to make the game, stadia, the atmosphere much more sanitised, to fit into a much more sanitised world. But now so much of the game itself is data driven. Much less to do with instinct, or natural talent. Used to be they'd try to make computer games as close to the real thing as possible. Now it seems they're trying to make football as much like a computer game as possible.
In answer to the OP, in a word, yes.
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Maybe not a computer game but definitely a biased formula in favour of the richest clubs/leagues. Still calling it the Champions League is also a farce! How can a team be champions of Europe if they are not champions of their own country? Gave up watching after that. Having teams who finish 2nd,3rd,4th in their league knocking out the champions of another country is a joke. Let them set up a Super League and leave the CL to Champions only.
 
magoob1982 said:
Can you imagine how much better it would be for fans if it was champions of each of these leagues in the new format.
Be some tasty away trips right there

1. **English Premier League (England)**
2. **La Liga (Spain)**
3. **Serie A (Italy)**
4. **Bundesliga (Germany)**
5. **Ligue 1 (France)**
6. **Primeira Liga (Portugal)**
7. **Russian Premier League (Russia)***
8. **Eredivisie (Netherlands)**
9. **Belgian Pro League (Belgium)**
10. **Ukrainian Premier League (Ukraine)**
11. **Turkish Süper Lig (Turkey)**
12. **Scottish Premiership (Scotland)**
13. **Super League Greece (Greece)**
14. **Swiss Super League (Switzerland)**
15. **Austrian Bundesliga (Austria)**
16. **Danish Superliga (Denmark)**
17. **Czech First League (Czech Republic)**
18. **Cyprus First Division (Cyprus)**
19. **Croatian First Football League (Croatia)**
20. **Serbian SuperLiga (Serbia)**
21. **Norwegian Eliteserien (Norway)**
22. **Polish Ekstraklasa (Poland)**
23. **Israeli Premier League (Israel)**
24. **Hungarian Nemzeti Bajnokság I (Hungary)**
25. **Swedish Allsvenskan (Sweden)**
26. **Romanian Liga I (Romania)**
27. **Slovak Super Liga (Slovakia)**
28. **Slovenian PrvaLiga (Slovenia)**
29. **Bulgarian First Professional Football League (Bulgaria)**
30. **Finnish Veikkausliiga (Finland)**
31. **Kazakhstan Premier League (Kazakhstan)**
32. **Belarusian Premier League (Belarus)**
33. **Moldovan National Division (Moldova)**
34. **Latvian Higher League (Latvia)**
35. **Estonian Meistriliiga (Estonia)**
36. **Lithuanian A Lyga (Lithuania)**
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It would certainly be more entertaining and likely to throw up some shocks! Like Rosenborg`s 0-3 win away to AC Milan.
 
Personally I love us being in the champions league
Though after the last time it’s mentally scarred me

is it boring ?
Maybe a bit , but I love the whole build up to the draw when we are in it
 
GazzaG said:
An absolute joke that we talk about France being 'top 5' while countries like Portugal and the Netherlands are outside of that.

Since that final you mention in 2004, the entire French league has been to as many European finals as Rangers.
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Scottish clubs have won more European trophies than French clubs.
 
giogaddi said:
Serious question. How do people who don't watch it know it's rubbish/boring?
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It's weird how many on a football forum hate football. Any thread about football outwith Rangers is met with "I only watch Rangers" or some other nonsense, but you can tell at Ibrox every week that fans have absolutely no idea about the sport.

There was a thread a couple of nights ago and a poster said the EPL was terrible this season, I mean where do you even start with that?
 
DeeCeeTee said:
It should be domestic champions only, whether that’s the league or even a domestic trophy. If they want to keep the top 5 having leads of entries, go back to a straight knockout competition, with no restrictions on seeds or country.

If PSV vs Liverpool is drawn in the 1st round, then so be it.
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That argument simply falls apart though. Would you watch champions of minnow countries play each other?
 
The new format will be good for it I think.

Currently the group stage has so many dead rubber games. Even this knockout draw looks quite easy to call on paper.
 
Northampton Lodger said:
I could probably name every European Cup winner from 1968 to Liverpool winning it at Wembley. When it became the CL it seemed to pick up but now it is very boring . Could probably name 6/8 of next seasons Q/F. When you see the fans of these teams politely clapping a winning goal then the games a bogey.
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I agree with the sentiment because it felt much more competitive but ironically there were probably more serial winners during that spell than any other decade. 3 in a row for Ajax and Bayern, 2 for Liverpool. Then 2 coming for Forest in the next 2.

The real spread was in the beaten finalists from amongst others Greece, Belgium, Plastic Ireland and then Sweden v Forest.
 
It can be boring and predictable. It can be unpredictable and exciting. But I do believe there's far too many teams in it that don't merit the accolade of champions as they have never won anything. It's all about TV money and ripping it out of fans. Unless we're in European tournaments I can't be bothered watching it. Quite amazed to read big dumplings thug mckenna is playing against man city tonight. Unbelievable. No magic in it for me just shock.
 
I think it's always gone through periods of specific league and clubs dominating it, as much as it seems like it was more varied in the past. It's lost its magic for the moment because we aren't as good as Copenhagen for one who probably think and feel it still had it right about now.
 
GovanFront4 said:
Also, can I just say that absolutely no one is tuning in to RFS (Latvia) v Struga (Macedonia). So we can just forget the absolute nonsense argument of making it champions only.
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lol, not many people even in Latvia would watch it.

I’m not sure what the answer is. Understand both sides of the argument. Can remember when it first started and I would watch a different Club most nights, mainly to see the stadiums and support - remember watching FC Thun win their first game in it. Most of it is just we’ve all seen it over and over again. Strange to think Milan would only have been in it three times this century if it went down to Champions only, be plenty of Clubs like that.
 
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The new H&H programme on the Champions League is a good reminder of how innovative & exciting it was to see all these European teams on a regular basis.
And largely different teams each year representing the countries too - this wasn’t an era of one team dominating (well, outside of Scotland!) and so you saw different teams, more countries represented and it felt refreshed every year.

Now you know there’ll be 6 out of Madrid, PSG, Man City, Bayern Munich, Dortmund, Inter, Milan, Liverpool & Barcelona in the 1/4 finals. The chance of a Porto or an Ajax to put together a strong side and get to a final or even win just seems so remote.
 
Wazza said:
lol, not many people even in Latvia would watch it.

I’m not sure what the answer is. Understand both sides of the argument. Can remember when it first started and I would watch a different Club most nights, mainly to see the stadiums and support - remember watching FC Thun win their first game in it. Most of it is just we’ve all seen it over and over again. Strange to think Milan would only have been in it three times this century if it went down to Champions only, be plenty of Clubs like that.
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Exactly mate, it’s generally the same teams that are in it because they are excellent football teams. Christ Madrid won it 5 times in a row at the start, but yet we are to believe it’s only become predictable now? The trophy was retained regularly in the European Cup times, but it’s only happened in one streak in the CL era.

No facts, just miserable vibes is how the threads go.
 
I think most of its appeal used to be centred around it being aired on free to air (STV etc). It was something a bit different. Now Copenhagen v Man City doesn't feel any different to Man City v Everton from the weekend. Different opponents but almost guaranteed same outcome on the same channel featuring the same/similar pundits etc. It's all a bit samey. We are so exposed to so many different competitions now that the champions League needs to have something different to make it appealing and I'm not sure it does?
 
As soon as 3-4 teams from the same league started entering it they should just have changed the name. I enjoy watching most games but the over complication of the draw is shite. If man utd, man cit and liverpool were drawn in the same group then so be it.
 
RabSpackman said:
The new H&H programme on the Champions League is a good reminder of how innovative & exciting it was to see all these European teams on a regular basis.
And largely different teams each year representing the countries too - this wasn’t an era of one team dominating (well, outside of Scotland!) and so you saw different teams, more countries represented and it felt refreshed every year.

Now you know there’ll be 6 out of Madrid, PSG, Man City, Bayern Munich, Dortmund, Inter, Milan, Liverpool & Barcelona in the 1/4 finals. The chance of a Porto or an Ajax to put together a strong side and get to a final or even win just seems so remote.
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Since 09/10 AC Milan have made the quarter finals twice. Since Inter won it in 2009/10 Inter have also made the quarter finals twice.

Dominant...
 
Andre55 said:
It would certainly be more entertaining and likely to throw up some shocks! Like Rosenborg`s 0-3 win away to AC Milan.
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It would be crap, and the 2nd competition with multiple clubs from the same country would be a better tournament than the no1 tournament, like what happened and caused it all to be changed in the first place!
 
Porto Loyal said:
That’s one of my biggest annoyances- the TV money we get is based on the size of the TV audience in Scotland, but the TV rights are sold on a UK basis, so we have to
ay the same as England
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Pretty sure we get a percentage of UK pot that is better than if it was just Scotland selling the rights. But the fact most of the money is based upon tv audience & 10 year performance ranking is rubbish & why we've ended up with such a top heavy competition only a few clubs can win.

The article described Bayern Munich as the last non financial elite club to win it. If we are considering Bayern Munich as an underdog, European football is seriously fucked

BTW if you were making your point about domestic football I'd totally agree. Scottish football fans must pay the most money to a TV company for the least games, then Sky give the money to the English teams.
 
More teams in it next year obviously but that format with this year's pots, we could have got a draw for example or

Feyenoord
Sevilla
Porto
Arsenal
Lazio
Young Boys
Antwerp

Telling me we couldn't be competitive and be aiming for a top 8 finish, or a playoff spot at least, with a set of fixtures like that?

Could also get a horror draw of course, but we absolutely can compete in this new format.
 
Flying Fullback said:
Pretty sure we get a percentage of UK pot that is better than if it was just Scotland selling the rights. But the fact most of the money is based upon tv audience & 10 year performance ranking is rubbish & why we've ended up with such a top heavy competition only a few clubs can win.

The article described Bayern Munich as the last non financial elite club to win it. If we are considering Bayern Munich as an underdog, European football is seriously fucked

BTW if you were making your point about domestic football I'd totally agree. Scottish football fans must pay the most money to a TV company for the least games, then Sky give the money to the English teams.
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Next year the market share is decided by some combination of TV share and 5 year ranking, so we would get significantly more than celtic this time if we are both in it.
 
Diego Maradona said:
20 years since Porto won it. Last time a club out of the big 5 leagues.

Sad how it’s evolved really. Rarely watch it any more tbh - that’s pretty telling
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I just think the format is self defeating.

Regardless of any "club world cup", winning the champions league used to mean you were the best club in the world. Unquestionable. Undeniable. It was the pinnacle.

These days it's almost common for the winner to be not even the winner of their own domestic title (either the year they qualified or the year that they won).

The grandeur of the prize has been completely undermined by bending over to the top leagues for me. And the irony is, it is these league who benefit least from the European cash influx, as their finances are already so buoyant from their domestic league tv deals.the league for who European money is most important are the ones who are so often locked out at the expense of England's 8th place finisher getting a go.

It's a broken system.
 
Couldn't be bothered watching any of the football on offer last night.
Too much of the CL & EPL has now become boring and unwatchable.
 
Southsideblueblood said:
A long long time ago. Next years format will be infinitely worse. I know we need the money but most likely getting regular defeats does nothing for me .
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Same. I’d rather take the financial hit but be in a competition we have a chance of progressing in. That said, it would give the beasts the income and the maulings instead
 
It will be interesting to see if the new format introduces an element of jeopardy back into the competition. Winning the league this year is massive for us, the financial gain over that lot could set us up for a sustained period of domestic dominance.
 
Bigbluebear said:
More teams in it next year obviously but that format with this year's pots, we could have got a draw for example or

Feyenoord
Sevilla
Porto
Arsenal
Lazio
Young Boys
Antwerp

Telling me we couldn't be competitive and be aiming for a top 8 finish, or a playoff spot at least, with a set of fixtures like that?

Could also get a horror draw of course, but we absolutely can compete in this new format.
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No we can't. They don't want us or any teams at our level in there because nobody in Malaysia or Tokyo will watch the games. It's all about Superstar football ultra with megastar player making great free goal from 30 metre knuckle ball kick. It's not for us anymore.
 
Bangersbc said:
I just think the format is self defeating.

Regardless of any "club world cup", winning the champions league used to mean you were the best club in the world. Unquestionable. Undeniable. It was the pinnacle
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I mean that's not true is it.

The year Aston Villa won it, 1981/82 they finished 11th in the league.

It's a far greater challenge to win it these days then it was back in the 60's.70's and 80's
 
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