OK, so again, how would YOU make a World Club Championshiop?

[mr magoo]

Brtians are people who come from England Scotland and Wales

[SoccerScout]

>>>Brtians are people who come from England Scotland and Wales>>

"Never heard of them"


(Come on dude I was quoting a very famous movie!)

[mr magoo]

i didnt realise.

what movie was it.

[Justin O]

There's no point in having a World Club Championship unless it's the club trophy everyone dreams of having. The most sought after club trophy is the Champions League trophy, so the only way to make a real world championship is to make the Champions League, a real world championship. I say some one needs to bribe, I mean convince, UEFA to extend one or two non-UEFA invitations to the Champions League. Then bingo, there's your world championship. The other confederations can have some brief tournament to figure who gets to go and that team(s) can be entered into the group stage or maybe even straight to the round of 16. That latter plan would probably only work if one team is selected. Entering this team directly to the home and home round of 16 would also ease travel concerns. The fact that the team paired with the "internatinal guest" would have considerable travel issues to deal with would be offset by the fact that they get to play a "weak" international side rather than one of the remaining 15 European clubs.

The big issue here would be travel but that is something that sufficient schedule manipulation could deal with. If Real can go to Japan in the middle of domestic and European play than this could work too.

[SoccerScout]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005O3VC.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg


Justin as per your idea...uhhh...No! The World doesnt revovle around Europe. I wouldnt care a bit about the Champions league trophy. Its a desired trophy sure...but in Europe.

[Prenn]

Originally posted by SoccerScout
Monty Python and the Holy Grail

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00005O3VC.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg




Do you want to slap him or shall I?

Imagine not knowing Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

He should be stoned for this!

[Luther_Gabriel]

If the Real Madrid isn't the reigning world club champion, then who is? The best club in Europe will always be the best club in the world. Always!!! In fact, the top ten clubs in the world at any time will always be found in Europe. The best players and teams play in Europe - it's a fact. Why do we need a tournament to crown the best club in the world is when we already know who the best club is after the UEFA Champions League final?

[Justin O]

Originally posted by SoccerScout
Justin as per your idea...uhhh...No! The World doesnt revovle around Europe. I wouldnt care a bit about the Champions league trophy. Its a desired trophy sure...but in Europe.

In an ideal world I would agree with you 100%, but I simply don't see any other way of coming up with a tournament that all involved would take seriously. Admittedly it's a "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" idea but what else would work?

[Luther_Gabriel]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by SoccerScout
Justin as per your idea...uhhh...No! The World doesnt revovle around Europe. I wouldnt care a bit about the Champions league trophy. Its a desired trophy sure...but in Europe.

In Club Football, the world does revolve around Europe. None of the other leagues around the world, including the MLS, will ever be on the same level as the top leagues in Europe.

[Justin O]

See Soccer Scout? As long as everyone in Europe thinks like the above post there will be no way to get them on board a real World Club Championship.

Sad but true.
:(

[Luther_Gabriel]

And the thing is, I am not from Europe. I just have a sense of reality.

[Jayhawk]

There isn't time in the summer and besides, any summer club tournament would necessarily diminish international competition, which is already getting short shrift (players claiming injury, etc). A better time would be in January, when a lot of leagues are on winter break, or in somewhat of a lull. Mine would be held every year or every other, but on a bit smaller scale. Here's the breakdown:
Europe-4 clubs (including UEFA cup winner)
South America-2 clubs
One clube each from CONCACAF, Africa, Asia, and Oceania
Defending World Champions
Champions of host nation.
They would play in 3 groups of four, with the three group winners and best 2nd place club forming the semifinal round.

It might be difficult to get clubs to take this as seriously as their national or confederation championships, but this is easily remedied by paying out more prize money than the UEFA Champions' League.

[SoccerScout]

>>In Club Football, the world does revolve around Europe. None of the other leagues around the world, including the MLS, will ever be on the same level as the top leagues in Europe>>

Oh really? Well I rarely watch Euro leagues. I mostly watch Brazilian league and MLS. Euro leagues are nothing more than a bunch of stiff Euro's, a couple of worthy Euro's and a gang of Non-Euro allstar mercenaries. Why should I watch that when I can see 22 Brazilians in 1 match?

Lets see: 5 Brits, 5 Italians, 2 Brazilans, 2 Germans, 1 Nigeria, 1 French etc etc or 22 Brazilians. I'll take the Brazilians Thank You.

* * * * *
PENTA

BUT BACK TO THE TOPIC...

Im ALL for a Club Championship, so we can see the Euro lose and lose..

[Luther_Gabriel]

Unfortunately UEFA has changed the format of the Champions League next season. But just pretend that it still used the current format with two group stages. First the club champions of Asia, Africa, North and South America must be decided through various tournaments, whatever tournaments these continents currently have will be fine. Then these four teams go to Europe to play against the four number two seeds from the second group phase to determine what the final eight teams will be. Then the tournament will continue as normal. There would be travel difficulties if one of the non-European teams made it to the final eight, but it would be managable. These non-European teams would have played about the same number of games to get to this point, but they would have taken a different path. Then the winner could be crowned champion of the world. The problem is that in the very unlikely situation that one of the non-European teams wins, then who is the European champion?

[Auriaprottu]

Originally posted by SoccerScout
Oh really? Well I rarely watch Euro leagues. I mostly watch Brazilian league and MLS. Euro leagues are nothing more than a bunch of stiff Euro's, a couple of worthy Euro's and a gang of Non-Euro allstar mercenaries. Why should I watch that when I can see 22 Brazilians in 1 match?

Lets see: 5 Brits, 5 Italians, 2 Brazilans, 2 Germans, 1 Nigeria, 1 French etc etc or 22 Brazilians. I'll take the Brazilians Thank You.


PENTA



I was going to post something like this, but you've said it just fine. Also, "always" and "never" are phrases sure to make a statement false at some point in the future. I'm in a positon where I'm forced to watch Euroball to get my fill of the game, but if I had my choice, I'd pass on it, seeing from posts such as Luther Gabriel's the arrogance of some of the Eurofans.

[Luther_Gabriel]

OK maybe I am bias and maybe even a little arrogant, but what I said I truely believe. I agree that Europe is not the only place to see entertaining football, but the best teams are from Europe. Even if these European teams have players from Brazil or Argentina, the teams are still European. In fact, the best Brazilian players (Ronaldo,Rivaldo,R.Carlos,Ronaldhino,etc.) play in Europe. This just makes the European teams better.
Even though I think it would be nice to give world teams the chance to compete in a tournament for world champion, I do not feel that this is essential. European champion carries just as much meaning in my eyes.

[Nobby]

Even if Europe has the best teams its not a certainty that UEFA will always win a World Club Cup.

In the past ten years, the South American teams have won the Intercontinental/Toyota Cup four times:

1992 São Paulo 2-1 Barcelona
1993 São Paulo 3-2 Milan
1994 Vélez Sarsfield 2-0 Milan
2000 Boca Juniors 2-1 Real Madrid

http://www.rsssf.com/tables/toyota.html

[Justin O]

Luther,

As for who would be Euroean Champion, I guess you could just give it to the defeated European team. The Copa America invites non-South American teams, and though I don't think any of them have ever won it I'm sure they have some system worked out should that happen.

Also, the new Champions League format, 1 group stage going straight to 16 team single elimination, would actually work better for this if you just entered one international representative at the round of 16.

[SoccerScout]

>>I think it would be nice to give world teams the chance to compete in a tournament for world champion, I do not feel that this is essential. European champion carries just as much meaning in my eyes.
>>>>>>>>>>

Well Eye of the beholder is a funny thing. I live in the US but am origianlly from Brazil (I'm actually going there next week to visit, havent been there in 4 years so no Soccerscout for 3 weeks..I can hear the cheers!)

Anyway...as I was saying "local opinions" always fascinate me. In my hometown in Brazil, Porto Alegre, I constantly hear that Porto Alegre has the most beautiful sunset in the world. They also constantly say that the most beautiful woman in Brazil are from Porto Alegre and that the woman from Brazil are the most beatiful in the world.
Now I imagine there are 1000 cities in the world that claim they have "the most beatiful sunset in the world", and being that they tell that to each other, nobody will argue with them since they all have the same opinion because they all live in the same "box". And so goes your opinion that EURO soccer is the all mighty and the Euro Champ is the BEST in the world.
I call it provincialism. People that have a narrow angle of vision as far as the "World" is concerned. That happens here in AMerica too. In baseball the champ is the "World" champ though they only play American teams (Canada doesnt count). So you can go on thinking that all that is great is in Europe and that everything else is bottom feeders. All I say is at the end of the day which country has won 5 World Champions all on foreign soil? And which continent has won the majority of the Intercontinental cups? We all know the answers.

[Rocket]

Originally posted by Luther_Gabriel
If the Real Madrid isn't the reigning world club champion, then who is? The best club in Europe will always be the best club in the world. Always!!! In fact, the top ten clubs in the world at any time will always be found in Europe.
Always? I'll buy "for the forseeable future", but always?

Who knows what will happen in the next 50 years.

South America's countries may be able to turn around their economies, and the Ronaldo's and Maradona's could end up staying in Brazil and Argentina rather than head off to Europe.

Or perhaps baseball will continue its decline in popularity and soccer will end up the most popular summer sport in the States. And if that occurs, and the Anschutz's of the future will have millions available to buy the best talent in the world for their teams.

I'm not saying soccer will displace baseball as America's favorite summer sport, but it certainly could happen.

Sixty years ago, the most popular sports in the U.S. were baseball, boxing, and horse racing.

Who knows what the most popular sports in the U.S. will be sixty years from now.