Get your facts straight, WCL allows only 2 team/ league ( with the sole exception if the WCL champ fail to take one of their countries spot they will still get one). Your suggestion that only the Champs should be allowed isn' t new but the suggestion that they should go direct in at the round of 32 is. Given that UEFA have over 50 federations with right to enter their champions it kind of show the intellectuall value of your post.
UEFA recap Group 1 Can still qualify: Breidablik (ISL), SFK 2000 Sarajevo (BIH, hosts) 10.930 or 15.690 Out of contention: ASA Tel-Aviv University (ISR), ŽFK Dragon 2014 (MKD) Group 2 Can still qualify: Mitrovica (KOS), Breznica Pljevlja (MNE, hosts) 0.330 or 1.995 Out of contention: NSA Sofia (BUL), Universitatea Olimpia Cluj (ROU) Group 3 Can still qualify: Hibernian (SCO), Pomurje (SVN, hosts) 13.085 or 9.640 Out of contention: Cardiff Met (WAL), FC Nike (GEO) Group 4 Can still qualify: FC Minsk (BLR), Kharkiv (UKR, hosts) 16.625 or 11.800 Out of contention: ŽNK Split (CRO), Bettembourg (LUX) Group 5 Can still qualify: ŽFK Spartak (SRB), Ferencváros (HUN) 17.955 or 7.465 Out of contention: Slovan Bratislava (SVK, hosts), Agarista - SS Anenii Noi (MDA) Group 6 Can still qualify: BIIK-Kazygurt (KAZ), PK-35 Vantaa (FIN) 34.580 or 8.365 Out of contention: Flora Tallinn (EST, hosts), EBS/Skála (FRO) Group 7 Through: Braga (POR) 3.630 Eliminated: Apollon LFC (CYP), Sturm Graz (AUT), Rīgas Futbola skola (LVA, hosts) Group 8 Can still qualify: Anderlecht (BEL, hosts), LSK Kvinner (NOR), Linfield (NIR) 5.465 42.205 0.660 Out of contention: PAOK (GRE) Group 9 Can still qualify: Górnik Łęczna (POL), FC Twente (NED, hosts), Beşiktaş (TUR) 7.940 26.900 2.475 Out of contention: Alashkert (ARM) Group 10 Can still qualify: Vllaznia (ALB), Gintra Universitetas (LTU, hosts) 7.315 27.930 Out of contention: Wexford Youths (IRL), Birkirkara (MLT) Respect to group 2 teams as they come from pot 3 and 4
@L'orange sorry about the terse reply -- if you meant the men's CL then those numbers are true, and yes, "bloated and ridiculous" sums it up quite well. The women's CL is almost as lean as it could be, all knockout rounds -- the men's one stopped that in 1991. Of course Uefa would like to expand the UWCL similarly, but as it is, it wouldn't make them any extra money.
I think generally there is too much bloat (and greed) in soccer--mainly meaning too many games, too many tournaments, and the big tournaments are too big--too many teams, too much qualifying and it all drags out far too long. The EU has 28 nations I believe, but UEFA has 55 member nations and 88 federations, I'm told. The Champions League, IMO, should start with the highest-ranked 32 league winners and then play--no qualifying. Put the next group--which I believe has been qualifying for CL and is qualifying now--in the Europa competition and then STOP. No 3rd level of CL competition, which apparently is about to happen. The governing bodies are all always wanting to expand, expand and add games, and there are already too many games. Streamline the Champions League and, likewise, I think the World Cup should be streamlined. Split it in half and put all the small, weak nations (by ranking) into another tournament--if you want. I'm all for inclusivity--to a point--but not sure you need to spend months/years with qualifying to see if Togo can qualify for the World Cup. Put Togo and Guyana and the small nations in a separate tournament--if you must--streamline it to the degree possible, play the games and be done with it. I just don't think these tournaments should drag on for months/years. I read recently that Daley Blind, who plays for Ajax, started 61 games last year. That is crazy. I'm surprised some of these players have legs with all of the matches many of them play. If you are a top player--male or female--in England's pro leagues, you could be playing not only your (many) league games, but also FA Cup, Continental Cup, Champions League qualifying/matches (two legs for each), Euro qualifying--and all in roughly the same time period. And I'm sure I'm missing other little tournaments. It's a bit nuts. I say all this as someone who's a big fan of football, and I know others will disagree.
That's kind of a rehash, and not really on-topic. I've made you another thread where this can be discussed ad nauseum Are football tournaments bloated? - https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/are-football-tournaments-bloated.2105716/
Congratulations the 10 teams through from the #UWCL qualifying round🏆Breidablik🇮🇸Mitrovica🇽🇰@HibsLadies🏴Minsk🇧🇾@zfkspartak🇷🇸BIIK🇰🇿@SCBragaOficial🇵🇹@rscanderlecht🇧🇪@FCTwenteVrouwen🇳🇱Vllaznia🇦🇱 👇👇👇👇👇https://t.co/SYsaae6tjl— UEFA Women’s Champions League (@UWCL) August 13, 2019 #UWCL round of 32 draw🏆🗓13:30 CET, Friday📺 Streamed liveSee which 16 teams are seeded👇👇👇👇👇https://t.co/vnom9qbY1c pic.twitter.com/8etV7bwVqA— UEFA Women’s Champions League (@UWCL) August 13, 2019
Who are the seedlings? Uefa are being a bit cryptic What a day for Kosovan and Albanian women's football – each country's first Champions League qualification, for KF Vllaznia (ALB) at the 6th attempt, and KFF Mitrovica (KOS) who went from 0 points last year to winning all 3 games. @blissett I'm really sorry I misspelled that
Seeded Lyon (FRA, holders) coefficient 129.865 Wolfsburg (GER) 112.575 Paris Saint-Germain (FRA) 99.865 Barcelona (ESP) 91.160 Bayern München (GER) 67.575 Slavia Praha (CZE) 59.870 Manchester City (ENG) 59.655 Brøndby (DEN) 50.045 Fortuna Hjørring (DEN) 47.045 FC Zürich (SUI) 44.230 BIIK-Kazygurt* (KAZ) 34.580 Glasgow City (SCO) 34.085 Atlético Madrid (ESP) 33.160 Sparta Praha (CZE) 32.870 FC Twente* (NED) 26.900 Fiorentina (ITA) 26.890 Unseeded St. Pölten (AUT) 20.270 ŽFK Spartak* (SRB) 17.955 Arsenal (ENG) 17.655 Piteå (SWE) 17.655 Göteborg (SWE) 17.655 FC Minsk* (BLR) 16.625 Juventus (ITA) 14.890 Ryazan-VDV (RUS) 14.580 Hibernian* (SCO) 13.085 Breidablik* (ISL) 10.930 Lugano (SUI) 10.230 Chertanovo (RUS) 8.580 Vllaznia* (ALB) 7.315 Anderlecht* (BEL) 5.465 Braga* (POR) 3.630 Mitrovica* (KOS) 0.330 We could see some tasty ties if the top 5 teams get the English, Swedish or Italian teams.
Pitea and Goteborg have the same since they haven't been in WCL recently enough (or in Pitea's case ever) to have any rating of their own so they just have Damallsvenskans rating, that Arsenal have the same is funny.
Last year's women's champions league seems to have helped kick-start new focus on development of the women's game in Czech Republic. Sparta Praha has followed Slavia's lead and will host big continental matches in the main stadium, and on the back of Slavia's attendance success against Bayern the Czech FA (who are right about as often as a broken clock) have launched an intiative called "girls too" (holky taky in Czech) The decision to rebrand (https://t.co/JnPrFd96UH) is based on recent #UWCL attendance at Slavia-Bayern & youth's perception of women's football.About 70% of youth aged 12-17 rated it as "super" (10/10), whereas for those aged 26+ it's slightly above 20%https://t.co/sw9I3DRaqn— Czech Football 🇨🇿 (@czechfooty) August 15, 2019 Also very significant is the massive generational change in perception of women's football.
So I've been preparing a big edit on the UWCL statistics page on Wikipedia, and here's some trivia I've found along the way: --No Swedish team to qualify for the competition proper has ever failed to reach the R16. Back when the #2 from the top nations still had to enter the qualifying groups, Umea missed the R32 once. --Similarly, the PSG R32 failure of the 2013-14 season is the only time (out of 20) that a French team has failed to reach the R16 --For how much the German league has been lauded as one of the higher-parity leagues in Europe, three leagues (Sweden-8, England-7, and Italy-7) have qualified a larger number of unique clubs to the UWCL, and another (Russia-5) is tied with Germany in this stat --To be fair, Germany is the only league to have MORE than 20 teams reach the R32, as the German defending UWCL champion has failed to qualify otherwise on two occasions --Denmark is the only nation to have two qualification slots every year where the exact same two teams have held those spots each competition --Aside from Brondby and Fortuna Hjorring, OL (FRA) is the only team (that I've seen so far) to have participated in all 10 editions of the UWCL proper. --Zurich (SUI) and Sparta Praha (CZE) have both qualified for the R32 in the same year on eight occasions; each have then reached the R16 four times out of those eight but never in the same year. They've also both reached the R32 a single time extra; Zurich failed to reach the R16 in theirs while Sparta succeeded to reach the R16 in theirs.
I am a sucker for this kind of stats, so it was a very entertaining reading for me: thank you very much!
19 nations have qualified a team into the R32 anywhere from 1-8 times. Of all the clubs from those low-qualifying nations only three have ever advanced to the R16, once each: Olimpia Cluj, Konak Belediyespor, and Gintras Universitetas. Those three advancements were all in consecutive years (2012-2013 for Cluj, 2013-2014 for Konak, and 2014-2015 for Gintra). 16 nations have qualified a team into the R32 9+ times, and thus those 16 nations account for 157/160 = 98.125% of the R16 participants through the tournament's history. 9 nations have qualified a team into the R16 9+ times, with a total of 133 R16 appearances between just those 9 nations, for 133/160 = 83.125% of the R16 participants. (These stats are ignoring the current R32 crowd since we don't know who's made it to this season's R16 yet.)
Noooo not Germans...I don't expect Göteborg to be very successful against Bayern but could be fun matches. Piteå should have a better chance against Brondby but they are only 7th in the league and have forgotten how to score, so should be close. Juventus v Barcelona and Arsenal v Fiorentina should be a good ties! Newbies Mitrovica have their work cut out for them!
Could be closer than one expect, at least the Swedish league are in full swing unless when they have to play them in the round of 16.
As an Italian, I am quite disappointed by this draw! Juventus and Fiorentina are good teams, but they drew some of the worse possible opponents and I don't see many chances for them: in particular for Juventus, after Barcelona dispatched Arsenal in a friendly match a few days ago, while displaying players of the caliber of Graham Hansen, Oshoala and Gujiarro in full form.
I said in the previous paragraph: Olimpia Cluj, Konak Belediyespor, and Gintras Universitetas (in consecutive years).
Barcelona were very good attacking wise against Arsenal. But defensively they carried on the same weaknesses that cost them against Lyon in the final. They are wide open on the wings. Any speedy winger has a field day ( see Van De Sanden)
Before the big Qualifying Round-Up, here's a view from some teams who didn't make it: Cardiff Met gave the best performance by a Welsh team in the competition, with 2 wins, but they fell short in Group 3: - https://clwbpeldroed.org/2019/08/13/uwcl-cardiff-schupbach-clipston-nike-pinder/ (Archived) PAOK are perennial champions in the Greek league, but lost all their games against Lindfield, Undlecht (Underground) and Quiner (Quinner): - sportime.gr/paok/paok-ginekes-itta-apo-ti-linfilnt, Autotranslated (Archived) There are no South African clubs in the final 32 but four national players of Banyana Banyana played a supporting role in the quals: - https://www.soccerladuma.co.za/news...d-week-in-the-uwcl-for-banyana-s-stars/660831 (Archived) Bosnia's SFK 2000 have teamed up with Sarajevo tourism, and before hosting Group 1, they started by making a Eurovision-style postcard video. But with football. It's Shareable Content, you have to share it