Including the Playoff Round, there are four qualifying rounds before the UEFA CL and EL, and the bottom clubs now have to play in a Preliminary Round, which has the champion of the worst four leagues in the CL Preliminary Round and fourteen clubs in the EL Preliminary Round. Back when 16 clubs started in the CL Group Stage, only three qualifying rounds were necessary. Now 26 clubs start in the Group Stage. I like that in World Cup Qualifying and the champions leagues of most confederations (AFC is an exception), every team can hypothetically win the tournament. Teams aren't declared not good enough or excluded by a formula that only lets some teams try.
This thread is very good for you, @L'orange, it's very good. (Do you know, "Conti Cup" is short for Continental Cup, which is either the name of the tyre company that sponsors it, or a hidden plan to bloat the tournament across Europe ... and this has something to do with baseball...) I heard he also plays baseball and American football on the side. Blind: Ran his socks off (photo: Amarhgil)
Tell me more Hmm, we all like the "magic of the FA Cup"... but on a European level? I don't think that would be popular with anyone. The Uefa club cups were based on two-legged ties for reasons of fairness - right from the start, in the 1950s/60s, when football wasn't a big business like today. Playing it as a single leg would give too much weight to home advantage, and the outcome of the tournament would be quite unreliable. But Uefa isn't profiteering off the women's Champions League or national qualifiers, they're still building up the sport. The England v Germany women's friendly today will make more money than most women's qualifiers do. And we know what happens when everything's condensed - look at the Concacaf women's qualifiers (sorry to pick them, but more members may be familiar). They're totally done on the cheap as an 8-team tournament, so we get results like Mexico losing 3rd spot to Jamaica without even playing them, or the 2011 WWC when the eventual finalists and Olympic champions the U.S. nearly missed the tournament. They were both punished for one bad result. At least the Concacaf women's is somewhat equal - any teams could qualify or fail. If you want a tournament that's arguably bloated and grossly unfair, try the men's WC qualifying, where 29 countries will try to win 0.25 of a World Cup berth https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/2022-world-cup-qualifiers-concacaf.2089022/page-2#post-37967578 I think you're right to be concerned about some 'bloat' in soccer and sports, but the UWCL is a strange place to start the conversation.
Outside of UEFA, most if not all qualifiers for youth and/or women's tournaments having single round-robin groups, two leg aggregates, and one game eliminations. They don't have one qualifying round that lasts months or over a year like World Cup Qualifying has. Concacaf is unfair, but in terms of being bloated, it uses fewer matchdays than in past cycles because of the Nations League. Including everything except the interconfederational playoff, Concacaf will play 124 qualifiers. They played 112 for World Cup 2018. For World Cup 2014, they had three group stages and played 142 qualifiers.
Yeah, UEFA runs the international qualifiers the same in men's and women's football (more or less). They've, um, decided to go in a different direction...... Women's Champions League: Group stage to be introduced from 2021-22 season https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/50487787 For some European leagues, 3 clubs means a quarter of the league will get a shot in the 'Champions' League. For the next ten nations, 2 clubs qualify. There's no Europa League in women's football - maybe this expansion took the place of that proposal. But for some teams, it won't be a burden on their schedule, it'll be very easy So, what do you think?
If three clubs start in the Round of 16, will the Group Stage advance five of eight second place clubs? 13 is a prime number, so there's no way to make groups that advance the same amount of clubs that total 13.
"Round of 16" will be the group stage. 12 teams from qualifying rounds will join them (those three national champions and title holder) to set 16-team group stage. Top two will progress to quarterfinal.