Do you miss Cup Winners Cup?

[marcin79]

Sentimental thread.

Cup Winners Cup was interesting competition. With domestic cup winning as a ticket to this competition, it used to be a place for one-time participants, mediocre teams who played well in play-offs and so on.

Do you miss this competition now?
Do you think it would be better if UEFA continued to play it?
(Logically there should be two polls, because someone can have sentiment and on other hand the feeling it would not suit to modern football, so please try to answer for a question if you think that UEFA did well to finish this competition).

[destekke]

i'd rather not.
i believe this would increase the amount of matches played.
Besides, in many countries, the cup is not always won by the top teams,
so the competition would consist of many mediocre teams, who would make the whole competition too boring in comparison with CL and UEFACUP

[MasterShake29]

I wouldn't bring back the CWC, but I think a 3rd UEFA competition, call it the UEFA Shield, could be interesting.

I'd make it a spring tournament, with the 3rd place teams from Champions League (8 teams), the 2nd and 3rd place finishers from the UEFA Cup group stage (I'd make UC 16 groups of 5, so 32 teams from here), and maybe some if the top finishers from the top leagues who didn't make the top two competitions.

Say the 8 CL teams go into the 2nd round (round of 32), while 48 teams enter the round of 64).

The difference from the top two competitions is that all rounds are single elimination. The CL teams are seeded in Round 2 and get to host in that round, the UC 2nd place teams are seeded in Round 1 and get to host in that round, all other hosts determined by draw.

[marcin79]

My impression to make this thread was that I used to think that I miss Cup Winners Cup. But few days ago, when I started to think more about it, it became clear for me, that it was good when you had only domestic league winners in European Cup/Champions League (or, at most, domestic league winners and 2nd placed teams from few strongest countries).

Now, when nearly all the elite clubs take part in Champions League, with three top countries able to place there four clubs each, and next three countries able to place there three clubs each, not to mention about big number of those who can place two teams there, it would be clearly not possible to make two interesting competitions for the rest of the teams.

Cup Winners Cup with cup winners only (what if in strong counries both domestic cup final competitors were advanced to Champions League) and UEFA Cup - the competition for 5th and 6th English and Italian clubs competing with those who were 3rd or 2nd in not so competitve leagues - it would be simply too much.

Anyway I admire fact, that UEFA Cup became place where I can see interesting displays of clubs from Turkey, Portugal, Russia, Greece and Holland, which are not so well known by their league football.

[laudrup]

Even in its heyday it was a minor trophy. So no.

[rangers00]

Suppose we use the formula of decades ago, and since only the Champions can participate in the CL, let's look at some of the notable teams in the CWC this season:

England - Arsenal
Italy - Inter
Spain - Betis
Germany - Schalke
Scotland - Celtic

Not a bad field. As a matter of fact, Milan, Real Madrid and Man U have to play in the UEFA Cup.

[marcin79]

Suppose we use the formula of decades ago, and since only the Champions can participate in the CL, let's look at some of the notable teams in the CWC this season:

England - Arsenal
Italy - Inter
Spain - Betis
Germany - Schalke
Scotland - Celtic

Not a bad field. As a matter of fact, Milan, Real Madrid and Man U have to play in the UEFA Cup.

In this situation it would make sense to keep Champions League, Cup Winners Cup and UEFA Cup separately. With all of them involved in Champions League, I suppose one more competition is enough.

[dor02]

I don't. If the UEFA Cup and CL went back to their old formats, then it would be a good idea to bring back the competition. Considering that at the moment, the CL has all the best sides and that the UEFA Cup has the average ones, the CWC would have the weakest sides involved. If the CL allowed only the league winners, then there would be an even spread of quality teams and thus the lower tier competitons in Europe would be more interesting.

As a matter of fact, Milan, Real Madrid and Man U have to play in the UEFA Cup.That sounds great.