that's not true. the gap became big in the mid-nineties as soon as pay-tv got going and the borders were opened. as soon as the three foreigners rule could no longer be applied to eu citizens, italian, spanish, english and german clubs began to completely dominate european football. all cl finalists from 96 to 2003 came from those countries, and after the season of upsets in 2004, that trend was continued. look at juventus. they've only played in the cl in 2 of the last 5 seasons. last season got knocked out in the group stage, only made 20 mil out of the cl. still, their revenues are 200 mil. clubs like hamburg, schalke, dortmund, totenham, newcastle or aston villa which played in the cl only rarely or not at all in the last 5-6 years are still much richer than any club in the smaller european countries. and it's not just money that draws players to these leagues. it's the quality of competition and the recognition that goes with it which can never be matched in smaller countries. it's obvious the cl isn't a very important factor . real's revenue certainly wasn't 100 mil in 2004. they top the delloitte list for 2004/05 with 275 million. they haven't made the cl quarters since and are still at the top of the revenue league.
If you want me to provide a link please let me know - but it's a fact that since 2004 Real Madrid revenues have increased to over 400 million while Ajax revenues have stayed the same, while the revenues of the likes of Tottenham Hotspur who even considering the fact that Ajax are a terribly managed club these days still haven't performed better at home or in Europe than Ajax still make more loads more out of EUROPEAN football revenues. How is this benefitting European club football? How you can see the introduction of the new CL format separate from the rich-poor divide widening? It's completely beyond me, and why you seem so intent on defending the new CL format is beyond me too. I don't get it. Let's ignore what football fans want even. But maybe you would care to explain to me how exactly the CL format promotes the interests of European club football. The CL is a UEFA tournament. UEFA has as its mission statement to promote the interests of European football at large. As in, of all UEFA members. It is financed by all UEFA members. To me it's pretty clear that UEFA has done a shite job of promoting the interests of all UEFA members. All non big league UEFA members are worse off where club football is concerned when compared to ten years ago. So UEFA has basically promoted the interests of four of its what, thirty UEFA members. How on earth can that be seen as a good thing?
9 out of 16 matches were blowouts and you call that predictable when compared to how many surprises there are now as in how many clubs proceeded to the knockoutstages that you didn't expect?! I mean, seriously?!!!! I am a bog standard European football fan. Season ticket holder of a mid table club for decades. My club is now successful, a champion and a CL contestant. Hasn't changed my point of view though and my point of view is pretty representative of what my fellow season ticket holders think. That's the big annoyance to me of BigSoccer. People just haven't got a clue about what the grass roots supporters think. What's worse, they don't even care. Football has sold out big time. All that matters now is what the television audience thinks. I think that is bloody sad. And I will never understand people who just don't get that.
Well now you are comparing 2 different things. Blowouts in the 1980s versus favorites simply advancing in 2010. *sigh* I pointed out that 9 out of 16 matchups were blowouts. That doesn't mean the other 7 matchups were surprises. The favorites won most of those too, it just wasn't a blowout. There aren't that many blowouts in the CL group-stage today, sorry. Look at the group Twente were just in. Most of the games were unpredictable and entertaining. Pretty much all Twente's games could have gone either way except maybe Tottenham away. You're just romanticizing about the past again. Of course the old EC nights seemed more special. That's because you were probably a teenager. Everything seems fresh and special at that age. As we get older things that used to get us excited now seem less thrilling. That's life. The reality is the Twente fans were rocking the stadium during their recent 3 CL home matches. Nobody appeared to be craving the idea of playing the Luxembourg champions instead of Inter Milan and Tottenham.
Thank you for underscoring my point about the attitude of your typical BigSoccer fan. It's people like me who actually buy tickets to games you know. Piss us off and you'll be watching games played in empty stadiums on ESPN. Have fun with that. And we were also rocking the sold out stadium in our first round domestic cup game v a sixth division amateur side. That's what Twente fans are like you know. Actually you clearly don't know.
well here it is. real's revenues were 276 mil for the 03/04 season, and 236 for 02/03. http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom...ts/UK_SBG_DeloitteFootballMoneyLeague2006.pdf what do you mean by european football revenues? tottenham haven't had any cl revenues before this season. haven't i posted a list of clubs much richer than any portugeuse, scotish or dutch clubs that haven't played much or at all in the cl ? explain to me how the cl made hsv, schalke, dortmund, spurs, villa, newcastle, juventus, even napoli, and almost all english top league clubs richer than porto or psv. continental competition is dominated by clubs from the biggest national markets just like national competitions are dominated by clubs from the biggest population centres, with a few exceptions of clubs in smaller cities with strong financial backing like psv. that's what happens when the borders are opened and clubs in the biggest markets sign as many players from the smaller markets as they wish. are you equally appalled by the dominance of big city clubs in national competition as you are by the dominance of big nation clubs at the european level?
Oh please, I attend games too. In fact I just bought some tickets for the Barca v Racing match later this month. Probably don't get a chance to see as many matches live as you but I don't see how that makes you superior. Sorry, but your actions speak louder than words. Lets look at your comments following the Twente v Inter match: "I hope you can all agree that we did the Dutch league proud! What a game, I'm still full of adrenalin. " https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showpost.php?p=21816780&postcount=32 You're a BigSoccer poster who is constantly discussing the Champions League. And its usually positive remarks that you are making. It's only in the UEFA/Europe forum where you pretend the CL is shit (presumably because you are talking to "outsiders" (ie people living in countries where football isn't as big) which gives you some odd superiority complex).
Okay mate, now you're just being arrogant. I attend games. In fact, I've been attending the games of a team with a $2.5 m salary cap since I moved to the US in 2007. In fact, if you want to play the oneupmanship game, I may be a United supporter, but I probably have more genuine interest in supporting "grass roots" than even you. You are an FC Twente fan - you have a vested interest in disliking the status quo. As an out-of-town red, I've made a point of visiting my hometown team (Great Yarmouth). While subsequent attitudes towards my own club from local Norwich fans means I stopped giving that club the time of day, I was at Carrow Road many times as a kid. At the request of an Ipswich-supporting friend of mine, I attended Portman Road to lend support during their financial crisis. In terms of the prize money imparity, I'm completely with you. In terms of league-to-league imparity, I'm not. You'll hate me for saying it, but the TV money made domestically is proportionate to the market-value of that league. There are pros and cons to the different national/league attitudes to debt and ownership. I'd also like to cross United out of the irresponisble debt equation, because they are a well-run, profitable club, whose debt comes purely from an LBO which was out of their hands. Anyhoo, for every team that benefits from being allowed to spend freely, with no limits on debt, there are many others like Leeds, Portsmouth and Southampton who have been tripped up by the pitfalls of that system. Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg may be slightly hindered in Europe by their system, but they remain relatively competitive while protected by their national rules. Also, such teams will grow more powerful when the FIFA Fair Play rules are applied, because they already operate within them. Chelsea, Real Madrid and Man City are all anomalies in terms of spending power. However, as has been pointed out already, since those teams saw that upturn in spending power, it hasn't actually got them a European Cup yet. The teams with significantly more spending power due to wealthy owners or massive reliance on debt should be somewhat curtailed by these new rules.
If a team WINS the CL, do they automatically qualify for the next year regardless of their League standing?
Simple answer is "yes", they automatically qualify directly into the group stage for the next season's tournament. But if you want to go deeper into the topic, their inclusion could affect the qualifying positions of other teams that play in the same domestic league as the defending CL winner in both the Champions League and possibly the Europa League. Link: Regulations of the UEFA Champions League See pages 1 and 2 (after the Table of Contents)... Article 2.03 (Titleholder)... Parts a) through d) And if you're into a bit of history, this wikipedia link reviews what the old regulation used to be and how the bitchin', cryin' and moanin' of the English FA, English media and many English fans in general forced UEFA into restructuring the old regulation into the current one that is in force. Liverpool's entry into the 2005/06 CL tournament
HUGE roll of the dice, but say a team wants to focus SOLELY on the the CL...and wins, it's possible to remain in the CL and be a midtable team (theoretically)
For most, Champions League, because you fought the likes of Elite clubs, and just to prove that you conquer Europe, you are the greatest of Europe in that year, i would take 1 Champions League in return for 5 years of not winning the National League Well, but as it stands right now, we have not won the National Championship since 2004, so for me is that, League comes first because there is no need to think of UCL as an Ajax fans, at least not for another decade
Depends on the league and even the club. If you're in a smaller league like say Belgium or Ukraine, winning the Champions League would be monumental. It would easily dwarf the prestige of winning the national league. In the bigger leagues like EPL, La Liga, Bundeliga, Serie A, etc. winning the league is very prestigious because they have global followings. There is also the fact that winning the league title, regardless of the size of the league, takes preserverance and consistency. The Champions League is a misnomer because it's not a league at all. It's a cup format with a group stage and elimination. This allows for greater upsets and unexpected results. This does nothing to take away from the prestige of the Champions League, but the winner of the CL is more about who is better at the right moment than the actual "greatest club in Europe". A national league title is a much better reflection of being the greatest. And that's to say nothing of the bragging rights within the country for winning a national title.
The question is plainly poorly phrased. Of course winning the CL is more prestigious than winning any domestic title. However, clubs may well nonetheless focus on the domestic leagues for sound reasons. I'd say the CL is most important for clubs that dwarf the competition in their domestic leagues: Real, Barca... Other topclubs to a lesser degree. For the two Spanish superpowers winning the domestic league isn't such a big deal (at least compared to what it'd mean for say Arsenal or Schalke). Europe is everything for them.
The CHAMPION's ****ing LEAGUE is for the BEST in EUROPE/WORLD, while domestic league is just a national title. What do you think?
Not entirely true for me. Premier League, La Liga and Bundesliga are incredibly difficult titles to win, and very prestigious, so I don't think it's fair to refer to them as "just a national title". For example, I think a club like Liverpool would rather win the Premiership, since they've never done it and have already won the CL. Obviously for my favourite club, Porto, CL is way more important since the Portuguese league is smaller.
CL is more prestigious. I've never been so happy as to when I saw my club FC Porto hold the CL. It probably won't happen again unless our current coach becomes the next Mourinho and pulls another rabbit out of the hat. I miss the old format though. It was more exciting for me. When FC Porto would have to go to play some Eastern European with all local players that we never heard of, that was exciting. We would hear that they have some amazing striker and bring 5 CB's just in case .
Greetings I was curious to know that is Chelsea defender Luiz not able to play against Manchester United for this upcoming Champions League clash cause he is cup tied to his former club? If so that will be awesome for Manchester United I have to admit Luiz is a great defender I think better than Alex.