Its Official Liverpool will not be able to defend its lucky crown!

I can´t think of any solution except put 5 in though. Everton fully deserve to get in - I mean, being tipped for relegation and then pulling out a season like that is incredible. But if Liverpool don´t get the chance to defend their title it will degrade the Champions League. I don´t know, chuck out Man U!! haha.

 

Learn your history.

The European Championship never have an automatic berth for the defending champs. As a matter of fact, some of the defending champs didn't qualify for the final phase of the competition.

1968 Spain (lost to England in the 2-legged QF, missed the 4-team tournament in Italy)
1972 Italy (lost to Belgium in the 2-legged QF, missed the 4-team tournament in Belgium)
1988 France (lost in the quals, missed the final tournament in W. Germany)

Ever heard that the European Championship was devalued? No chance.

 

During that period having two teams to enter the CL was the maximum! The CL only had 24 teams. So it is compareable to this situation, where 4 teams is the maximum. I remember that there was discussion about Dortmund entering the CL, too.

 

This entire thing is a big mess.

This is a real shame.

At least the OP is now red carded.

I don't think you can make a "fair" argument for this. There is no way the FA should remove Everton (although if they did they should just make Everton and Man U playoff for the final place). They need to put it on UEFA who already decided they would not grant Liverpool/England the extra place.

It is quite silly actually. They should have always had it that the winner gets a "free" place and that country gets an extra team like it was for a time before the CL format.

 

screw uefa and their anti-liverpool, anti-england bias! i don't give a toss about rules or regulations prior to the cl final. the fact that liverpool came back to win one of the greatest football matches in european history UNDER THE UEFA FLAG deserves a bending of the rules.

find a way to make it work uefa. you don't have to punt everton and you don't have to screw some nobody from eastern europe. there is a solution to this problem so think out of the box and find it. even though you didn't think of it, swallow your pride and accept the tns offer, play an extra game, allow an exemption or something. but reward liverpool for beating the best and being the best in europe.

they gave uefa a final for the ages, now give them their just rewards. anything less is istanbulsh**

 

IT would be a damn shame if Liverpool couldn't defend their trophy next season but they really shot themselfs in the leg in the EPL but played outstanding football in europe and deserve to be Champions League winners by all means. It's been a while since I've seen a team play with so much heart. Like Greece last year, image them not being able to defend it, I know its through qualification but I'm just speaking hypothetically.

Cheers again Liverpool and shame on anyone who can't get over the fact that their team lost and isn't able to recognize the true Champs! Anyone coming back from three goals deserves at least some credit, so get your head out of your arse, capiche?

 

Didn't the same thing happen a few years back with Real Madrid? They got to go in at the expence of Real Zaragosa?

 

They should let them do that, the Welsh club gets some money and exposure that they need, and liverpool gets to defend their title. It's not like TNS is going to make it to the group stages or anything, so smart on their part.

 

Winning a world Cup entitles you to defend it. Its just that these days they have to start at the qualifying round. UEFA should change their rules to enable the defending champion to defend their title, even if they have to start at the 1st qualifying round.

 

No they don't. All that has to happen is for UEFA and the FA to arrange that Everton comes in one round earlier and plays Liverpool for the 3rd round spot.

 

Before the CL-format the country only got an extra place if the CL-winner didn't win it's national league.
If they won both, the 2nd placed team of that country wasn't allowed into the CL. Only difference with now is that UEFA has set a limit on the number of teams from one country.

A play-off between Everton and Liverpool will indeed be the only solution within the rules in which nobody would have to make a choise.
The winner will go into the CL (Everton in QR3 or Liverpool in R1) and the loser in the UEFA-cup (round 1).

 

The Spanish Federation told everyone that letting the champions instead of the 4th was mandatory according to UEFA ruling (though it's likely they lied). Zaragoza knew from the start that they wouldn't play the CL if Real won it.

Anyway, if they let Everton and Liverpool in it would be an aggravation towards Zaragoza, would they invite them too next year?

I think UEFA should make this clear for the next editions, but they must stick to the rules this year. I think it's a shame they don't allow extra slots for champions like they did in the old European Cup, and I'd love to see Liverpool play, butalso I think it's important not to make any discrimination.

BTW FIFA has made Brazil play to qualify for next WC, so title defending privileges are not universal.

 

But they get the chance to qualify, Liverpool don't. They should put the defending champions back in, even if its in the 1st qualifying round.

 

Ok bunny, only if you try and learn not to be a pompous twat. I wasn't talking about the European Championships. The post I reffered to was specifically talking about the World Cup, but you just couldn't turn down the chance to pretend you were important.

We'll have to agree to disagree then, because a tournament without the defending champions is devalued in my opinion.

 

Hmmm, yeah they did. They didn't get into the first 4 of their league, so failed in their 'chance to qualify' for the CL.

National League = world cup qualifying, in that comparison.

 

Liverpool's chance to qualify was this season's Premiership.

Regardless of the fact that a play-off between Everton and Liverpool would be a cop-out by both the FA and UEFA and is never going to happen anyway, it would be against the rules. The holder of the cup (if entered) is automatically seeded #1 in their country. Assuming Liverpool do manage to get entered somehow, they will go straight into the group stages with Chelsea, and Arsenal will have to qualify.

Why not have the entrants from the two lowest-ranked leagues play a pre-pre-qualification match, with the winner going into QR1 (where they would have been anyway)? And change the rules for next season so that the holders get a spot.

 

I think the problem is, people are saying that in the World Cup they have to qualify to defend etc etc.....

But in this case, they are in the competition, albeit, the qualification rounds. As stated by some people, as it stands Liverpool are not in next year's competition in any shape or form. They are in the UEFA Cup. They can’t even qualify for the CL.

Everton could do the honest thing and give up their place - but that's never gonna happen.

A way to go around this is to play an extra preliminary qualifying round between the lowest ranked nations - I dunno who that is; Andorra and Kazakhstan let's say....

That would free up room.

We all remember one year, the FA made allowances for Man Utd not being in the FA Cup and had the stupid lucky loser spot allocated. It was Darlington iirc. So yes, even sometimes the rules can be bent given mitigating circumstances like this.

As much as the rule dictates, it would unprecedented if Liverpool cannot defend their title. The only team not to, was Marseille back in 1993 (I think) who were expelled from UEFA competition in their match rigging affair. A team with the trophy in their cabinet has to be able to defend it. What is the point of having the trophy, if you know you are going to give it up at the end of the year. It’s ridiculous. It defeats the purpose of an actual competition imo.

The FA has to make a gutsy call - either that or UEFA have to - by changing the rules.

As a I said, Everton could do them favour and give them their spot, at least acknowledge their achievement (but I guess it maybe sours theirs.)

The only justifiable way I can see out of this, is the FA to arrange a two-legged playoff match or maybe a one off match in Manchester to determine the place. If Everton win, they get in the 3rd qualifying round, if Liverpool do, they get into the first phase. The losers get the UEFA Cup.

This is the only option for me.

 

I agree. The best solution is to allow a win-win situation for a smaller club (it doesn't have to be TNS) and Liverpool. Not to mention win-win for UEFA and the FA.

 

I will reiterate they have no one else to blame bar themselves.

 

It's called the Champions League, Liverpool are the Champions, therefore Liverpool should have the right to defend their title. They should kick one of the no-name teams out or make Liverpool go through the qualifying rounds. How can a team like Liverpool not be involved in the CL a year after winning it? It's a mistake on UEFA's part in sporting, marketing and popularity terms if they deny Liverpool for next year's CL. Everton deserve to be in there too, you cannot take anything away from them, they earned it. But at least make Liverpool qualify or something...who knows...

 

I am curious as to why one of the no-name teams that earned being there on the same terms as Everton should be taken out just because, yet Everton "deserve to be in there".

 

there's no reason to kick anyone out. there are a number of creative possibilities available to accomodate everyone (like the tns proposal) but uefa is hell bent on sticking to the letter of the law. this seems to be their position whenever england is involved but not so the case when spain or italy are the issue.

if the curtain closes and liverpool get axed, how will the fa (or england) respond? i think a anti-glazer-united-like groundswell would be in order.

 

The TNS proposal is never going to float. While I don't doubt that the offer is well-intentioned (and highly imaginative) and would be mutually beneficial, it would set a very dangerous precedent. People will say that it's a special case seeing as Liverpool are the defending champions but the match-up still seems very arbitrary - what's to stop other small teams that know they won't make it through to the group stages offering to play non-qualified bigger teams?

And I can't see the FAW being too happy about losing their only CL spot without a (genuine) attempt to qualify.

 

There will be a vote in June, UEFA are split and big names are calling for Liverpool to be allowed back.