Valley Bluenose
RTV? Completed it mate!
It's not nonsense, but there's more to it.
The Telegraph reported about it a fortnight ago, including quotes from the ECA.
The issue that is being discussed is that coefficients would be heavily weighted by historical achievement in the competition, so a Celtic, Red Star or PSV wouldn't have had to play in the qualifiers this season. That may actually pass without too much controversy as a gesture of goodwill towards the smaller nations. The coefficients already changed to accommodate a watered down version of this and they already make it easier for domestic winners in qualifying, so don't write this plan off.
The proposals to have 8 team groups or weekend games are very divisive though and the the EPL and Bundesliga have come out strongly against it.
I did a bit more digging on this, given the hyperbolic reporting in the Scottish media.
UEFA recently introduced a change for this season and running for the 2018-2021 cycle that ALREADY includes ranking points (co-efficient) for previous success. For example, the Dhims got 4 points for their win and we got 1 point for 1972 in Barcelona.
The historical points ONLY count - currently - towards a clubs 10 year ranking but NOT the 5 year ranking as far as I can establish. The difference being that it is the 5 year ranking that decides your co-efficient for that years competition, i.e. the 5 year ranking determines your seeding for that years competition. That is NOT affected by your points awarded for historical wins. Where the historical wins seem to have relevance is in the 10 year ranking. The 10 year ranking's primary impact seems to be in determining your revenue share of the prize money. Still important but absolutely no impact on qualification process for the group stages.
My suspicion is that the ECA (of which Liewell is a prominent figure) want to see this changed so that the historical points awarded become part of the 5 year ranking. That COULD mean an easier qualification process - because a club may be ranked higher/have a higher co-efficient - but it WOULD NOT guarantee entry to the group stages. For any club.
From the ECA website (and dated yesterday):
"The UEFA Club Ranking takes into account the results of each club in UEFA Club Competition and is used to determine a club's seeding in club competition draws (5-year ranking) as well as a club's revenue share (10-year ranking). The coefficients will be updated directly after each completed round of matches.
The 5-year ranking coefficients are composed of match points and bonus points obtained during the running European club competition season. Should a club's individual coefficient be less than 20% of the national association's 5-year coefficient, the club receives the national association's 20% as a minimum guarantee (*).
The 10-year ranking also takes into account historical success in European club competitions by attributing points per title won as follows:
Last 5 years: UCL (12pts), UEL (3pts)
As of 1992/93: UCL (8pts), UEL (3pts), CWC (1pt)
Before 1992/93: UCL (4pts), UEL (1pt), CWC (1pt)
Please note that ECA is not responsible for the data in this ranking. Use the filter below to choose between the 5- and 10-year ranking."
The link below takes you to their page. It also lets you filter the 5/10 year ranking by club.
https://www.ecaeurope.com/uefa-rankings-access-list/club-ranking/?page=1&years=5