Crazy CL Idea: Double Group Stage / No Knockout Rounds [Archive]

MasterShake29

31 Oct 2006, 08:33 PM

Just thinking out loud, what would people think about this for the Champions League?

First Group Stage - same as now, 8 groups of 4.

Winners only advance to second group stage.

Second Group Stage - 2 groups of 4

Winners only qualify for CL Final (single game at pre-determined site as now)

The incentive for teams eliminated early is to gain ranking points for European seeding purposes, and I'm sure there can be monetary incentives as well. 2nd place teams in the first group stage would qualify for the UEFA Cup.

Just a thought...

benito camelpene

31 Oct 2006, 08:38 PM

Interesting idea but I still prefer the way it is now. I love the tension in the Knockout rounds with the away goals rule in place.

gold.field

31 Oct 2006, 11:12 PM

Too many meaningless games. No matter how professional players and clubs are today, most of them actually want to win regardless of money. TV/stadium spectator counts would go down, too.

leg_breaker

01 Nov 2006, 01:18 AM

A bit pointless. The second group stage was a flop last time, don't see why it would be any different second time.

valcom

01 Nov 2006, 08:10 AM

i join Benito, i think the actual CL is more exciting with the knockout stage.

MasterShake29

01 Nov 2006, 08:29 AM

A bit pointless. The second group stage was a flop last time, don't see why it would be any different second time.

That's because it only led to the quarterfinals. This one would be one team qualifying for the final, instead of two qualifying for the quarterfinal. Plus, with 8 teams making it instead of 16, the games would be between tougher opponents, in theory anyway.

I think that's a big difference.

But would there be too many "meaningless" games? Maybe.

BocaFan

01 Nov 2006, 12:07 PM

The incentive for teams eliminated early is to gain ranking points for European seeding purposes, and I'm sure there can be monetary incentives as well.

Just a thought...

That incentive just isn't big enough to expect teams to give it 100%.

justboy

01 Nov 2006, 01:50 PM

Just thinking out loud, what would people think about this for the Champions League?

First Group Stage - same as now, 8 groups of 4.

Winners only advance to second group stage.

Second Group Stage - 2 groups of 4

Winners only qualify for CL Final (single game at pre-determined site as now)

The incentive for teams eliminated early is to gain ranking points for European seeding purposes, and I'm sure there can be monetary incentives as well. 2nd place teams in the first group stage would qualify for the UEFA Cup.

Just a thought...

The did something similar the first year of the CL.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Champions_League_1992-93

Visca...

01 Nov 2006, 06:53 PM

UEFA presidential candidate Platini plans to go back to the old format or some variation of it (not the second group stage format, but the older). I wouldn't mind it. Money and everything that makes the difference from now from the old format will be in the way though.

MasterShake29

01 Nov 2006, 08:28 PM

One argument for it is while it increases the total number of games, no team would play more games than they currently do now, 13 (not including qualifying).

glennaldo_sf

01 Nov 2006, 10:49 PM

The biggest problem with this is that it would backfire financially, which is what the champions league is all about. Too many teams would have nothing to play for (as far as the fans are concerned) and fewer fans would attend games, as well as toon in on TV if they know the game will have no affect. I stayed up till 2 am two nights in a row, despite having to be @ work @ 7am the next day, to watch games. However, if the games were meaningless, I wouldn't have. I'm sure many others would do the same.