Old style European Cup or the Champions League format ?

I fully agree with you. The group stage has become the most pointless and boring stage of any football competition I can remember. Even though United aren't certain to qualify and the other English teams (except Arsenal) have had dodgy starts in Europe, it's relative ease means that we have started to field weaker sides in the Group games and stroll through games against teams like Otelul Galati. Ferguson isn't bothered about going out and twatting them 5-0, he'd rather his players didn't risk themselves by pulling a muscle in a sprint against such meagre opponents.

With the sheer number of teams in Europe every season, I think it could easily go back to straight knockouts and still have pretty much the same number of televised games, only in a knockout system those individual games are far more exciting with far more riding on them (therefore surely more people will watch it?). 76 teams entered the competition this season, knock that down to 64 in a preliminary round and start the knockout rounds. 194 teams entered the Europa League this season. You could just add another 64 to the Champions League and have another round...Why not just a big feckin FA Cup for the whole of Europe?

I dont know, anything would be more entertaining the tripe offered up so far. It used to be good when we had groups like ours in '99 (Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Manchester United, Brondby).

 

I'd have knockout stages all the way through but still some seeding protection and no same country clashes until after January.

 

Simple answer is that it will not go back to knockout format as the bigger nations will not let it happen through loss of revenue. However any competition which means that clubs with fantastic European history like Ajax, eg, have absolutely no chance of ever winning it again has to be wrong. It used to be that for any team going to places like there knew they would be delighted to get a draw, never mind a win. Now as boyd88 says some teams are going to places like that and fielding understrength teams.

End seeding except for teams 1-8, end country protection and let them play it out. It will undoubtedly mean some potentially weaker groups but will also throw up some beauties every year. With a more even chance of the monies being spread around far more it will also give the chance to other teams outside the usual suspects to keep their best players and buy at a higher level, thus giving them back a chance once it goes knockout.

 

Tbh, the group stage of any cup competition is all about increasing revenue so in an ideal world it would be knockout from start to finish.

 

A group stage done right can be about more than just revenue though. Without the current strict seeding system group stages can be created that will be far more exciting and therefore surely attract a greater audience, make the competition more attractive to TV companies for their investment and increase revenues, which should also be spread more evenly. Perhaps there should be a few knockout rounds to wittle it down to perhaps a last 16 or 8 group stage, similar to how the system worked in the early 90's, which had groups full of good teams of a similar standard that had proven themselves in the previous rounds, in which it becomes an exciting contest between Europe's big clubs rather than a chore.

Another unfortunate side effect is the creation of mini leagues within domestic leagues, for example our big 6 (previously big 4) or so coveting the top 4 places and pretty much nobody else having a serious look-in, the revenues generated from the Champions League in comparison with the Europa League simply perpetuating and increasing the dominance of the incumbent 'big' teams. There's not a great deal that can be done about this other than simply reduce it back down to domestic champions only, which is so far-fetched it's not even worth considering.

 

Back to what it was before.

 

Old School wish all of football went back to the Old School days!

 

The European games of the 70's/80's were national events, being the 'Best of Britain' v the 'Rest of Europe' and everyone (except their fiercest rivals) supported the British club.

I don't bother with any of the matches now - it's hard to get enthusiastic about two groups of random foreigners playing each other.

 

I'd love to see it go back to the knockout, it would make every game worth watching and I'd love to see it in the Europa as well. Some of the games I've watched in that would cure insomnia.

 

I'd love to see some one-legged knockout games...

 

I never really pay much attention to the Champions League group stages, it's usually very predictable and tbh until recently I wanted the English teams to lose because I was sick of the same teams in the final stages. What I would do is switch several places with the domestic cup winners in the better leagues because it would make the FA Cup more of a specical than what it has been in recent years, plus finishing 3rd in any league shouldn't be rewarded more than a team who has won a trophy. It would never happen, money talks if Liverpool finished 3rd and Fulham won the FA Cup, UEFA would make all that extra money from all the Liverpool followers (I refuse to call them supporters) in China, America, Japan etc paying for the TV rights. Also what would you do with the Europa League?

 

Go back to the old format. But to make it tougher than it was back then, have winners and runners up from every league. Or maybe the league champions and national cup winners. Get the 3rd and 4th placed sides back in the UEFA Cup (scrap Europa League) and watch that competition regain some glamour.