Liverpool FC Forum

by **Big Niall** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:33 am

Whoever gets 4th place in the CL will be a very poor team. I like the CL but think the premiership and other top leagues should be reduced to 3. We were closer to bottom than top (on points) last year and still qualified.

I know it wouldn't be good for LFC so people will disagree, but from the competitions point of view it is devaluing it, I mean at this rate we'll probably need top 7 to be qualify for CL.

All bias aside - 3 is defo enough.

by **woof woof !** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:42 am

Actually Big N ,although we get some great games in the CL ,I think changing it from it's original format i:e "The European Champions Cup" has somehow devalued the competiton . i preferred it when only the champions of each national league were in the champions cup (straight knock out basis)and the also rans were lumped into the UEFA cup.
Sometimes the pursuit of money fks up a perfectly good competition.

by **hawkmoon269** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:44 am

woof woof ! wrote:Actually Big N ,although we get some great games in the CL ,I think changing it from it's original format i:e "The European Champions Cup" has somehow devalued the competiton . i preferred it when only the champions of each national league were in the champions cup (straight knock out basis)and the also rans were lumped into the UEFA cup.
Sometimes the pursuit of money fks up a perfectly good competition.

Totally agree... it had more value then. But it's all about the money now, pack in more games, make more money.

by **taff** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:49 am

I would think its a steppimg stone to an European League. When Blackburn won the title I remember the AC Milan chairman saying how teams like that would draw a 30,000 and less gate while Liverpool would give them a full house because of the name

Then again Preston North End were crowd pullers years ago

by **The Ace1983** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:55 am

What i'd like, and this IS a radical overhaul, is to see 4 seperate leagues. For instance you would have a "champions league" made up of all the top placed teams from the prem, bundas, serie a, la liga, etc... And then have seperate leagues for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th placed teams. Countries like Scotland, Portugal, Holland, and the smaller leagues could only have 2 teams and the 2nd placers wuld get drawn so that the leagues were made even. Then, in the summer, have a tornament for all the winners (could be a bit difficult on worldcup/euro years) in the form of the Amsterdam tournament.

This of course will never happen, but it's an interesting thought.

by **wee_boi888** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 10:59 am

Would there be enough appeal to the crowders to attend the lower placed leagues? The idea just doesnt appeal to me...

by **Big Niall** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:04 am

Before my time but there was a year (1980 I think) when Liverpool and Nottingham Forest were the best two teams in Europe (hard to believe but true).

Forest were Euro champions and LFC were league champions so they both qualified. However they drew each other in the first round. Forest won and then the rest of the comptetition was an anti climax.

You'd have to have seeding or it might be ****** in later rounds (like Milwall in FA cup final without beating a premiership team).

Top 8 countries and 8 qualifiers going into champions league of 16 teams could be good.

At least they got rid of the second group stages - they were terrible.

by **taff** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:44 am

I believe in the luck of the draw and Millwall deserved to be in the final as they beat teams to get there and Im speaking as a Cardiff boy with the nightmare that was Millwall invading our city

This is however an interesting debate

The game has moved on since we won the European Cup and to be honest I could only see teams from the premier leagie, Spain and Italy winning it in a straight knock out as the other European teams have lost their players in the TV age but I also agree about the mini european league that Big Niall raised.

Ace 1983 had a good point and I think the future of the game would lie in more stronger leagues.

Combine the SPL and Holland and Portugal in an Atlantic League or whatever. I and presume Big Niall as well would love to see a Welsh club and an Irish Club in this league or maybe two we could have South Wales and North Wales and Ireland could have Dublin and Cork for example.

The Scandinavians should combine and Austria could join the Bundesligue

Similar in a way to regional rugby and that was painful for a lot of die hard club supporters but it will prove the saviour of the game long term.

Also the youth policy by UEFA is a step forward and whilst you cant restrict trade you have to somehow look to protect the smaller clubs

by **JBG** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:56 am

All the same, Liverpool recieved a lot of criticism this season and last for being a "poor" team.

However, this same "poor" team went through a group of death featuring last year's Champions League runners up, one of the recent powerhouses of European football and a rising Greek team that could be a power in future seasons. Even if we do limp home in 4th we are competitive in Europe, although I'd "fear" for Everton if they qualified as they have "going out to an Eastern European team in the qualifiers" written all over them, which like Newcastle in 2003/04, is a complete waste of time and a bit of an insult to the Premiership.

by **taff** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 12:05 pm

But whoever gets fourth deserves to have the chance to be humiliated in Latvia

I think with us especially this year that we have players who are probably more suited to European football rather than the premier league and a manager who probably understands the continental game more then the EPL.

Liverpools European heritage helps out in this instance

If only we could combine the both

by **Fowler_E7** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 1:09 pm

John Barnes' Granny wrote:All the same, Liverpool recieved a lot of criticism this season and last for being a "poor" team.

However, this same "poor" team went through a group of death featuring last year's Champions League runners up, one of the recent powerhouses of European football and a rising Greek team that could be a power in future seasons. Even if we do limp home in 4th we are competitive in Europe, although I'd "fear" for Everton if they qualified as they have "going out to an Eastern European team in the qualifiers" written all over them, which like Newcastle in 2003/04, is a complete waste of time and a bit of an insult to the Premiership.

everton in the champions league would be an embarresment to the premier league. Even if they managed to qualify for the group stages, they would get absolutly murdered in the group stages by any decent european side

by **woof woof !** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 1:54 pm

How about a proper European league . For example ,at the end of next season the top clubs in lets say the fifeteen best european leagues go into a european champions league they would be joined by 4 top clubs from the less competitive leagues (wales ,ireland ,estonia etc) who qualify thru a play off against each other .At the end of the 1st euro season the champions (and they would be true euro champs

) remain in place whilst the remaining clubs return to their respective national leagues to be replaced for the 2nd season in the euro league by the new winners of the national prem leagues .
Does that make sense ? and would it work ?

by **kazza** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 1:56 pm

It seems to me that it is evolving into a seperate European league which is what UEFA wanted to do in the first place. They obviously rate the Premiership enough to give them 4 spots.

by **109-1105722616** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 1:59 pm

woof woof ! wrote:How about a proper European league . For example ,at the end of next season the top clubs in lets say the fifeteen best european leagues go into a european champions league they would be joined by 4 top clubs from the less competitive leagues (wales ,ireland ,estonia etc) who qualify thru a play off against each other .At the end of the 1st euro season the champions (and they would be true euro champs ) remain in place whilst the remaining clubs return to their respective national leagues to be replaced for the 2nd season in the euro league by the new winners of the national prem leagues .
Does that make sense ? and would it work ?

rubbish idea.

however the current layout of the champions league (were manchester united won it without being the champions of their league) devalues the competition in my eyes, but we cant moan because we are recieving money for progressing in the competition

by **kazza** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 2:00 pm

It seems to me that it is evolving into a seperate European league which is what UEFA wanted to do in the first place. They obviously rate the Premiership enough to give them 4 spots.

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