So we saw what hand-me-down teams such as Guadalajara and others have done. Crap, for the most part. Should these slots be eliminated? Not so much for underperformances, but mainly because non-champions (or non-subchampions) shouldn't be there. It's bad enough that subchampions are allowed in, but what about teams that couldn't even achieve that? Do you want them prohibited from CCL participation? Now, you'll ax: But then how would the CCL format be? Well, elimination of HMD spots would result in a different # of CCL participants almost every year, with uneven groups. But so what? Big deal. So some groups would have 3 teams, and some would have 2. It's not a big deal, at all. They could have a lottery among Pot A teams, and those that win would get to choose whether they want a 3-team or 2-team group. For those that find this simple plan complicated (unfortunately there are many here who would), here's an example: This year, Guadalajara and RSL wouldn't be allowed in. Idk how many other HMD spots there are this year, but we'll just assume Guad and RSL are the only ones. Which means there would be 22 teams instead of 24. So there's be 2 groups of 2, along with 6 groups of 3. The highest ranked Pot A teams would get to choose if they want to be in a 2-teamer or 3-teamer. CONCACAF would go down the list until 2 teams picked to be in 2-team groups. Then they can conduct the draw. Of course, in this case, the 2 2-teamers will be Pot A&C team ties, since RSL and Guad woulda been Pot B.
With two clubs you have a two leg series. I wouldn't call that a group. I don't like your idea unless the qualifying round and 16 clubs in the Group Stage comes back. I also think how many clubs a country gets should not depend on if the same club qualifies multiple ways.
WTF? What up with the weird questions. Hand me down happens all the time in all Conferences. Now I would like for Concacaf to make a ruling on how the hand me downs should be awarded, Paul Calixte may be the only person in the world that knows all the rules by the different countries on hand me downs, some are based on regular season table, some add the playoffs, Mexico splits Apertura and Clausura. Is hard to keep up. Concacaf should look at the formats of the leagues and rule on a set of standards for hand me downs.
Noun group (plural groups) A number of things or persons being in some relation to one another. 2 is a number, thus they would still be groups.
1, 3.5, and -1,000,000 are also numbers. By your logic every round of every competition is a group stage because every round involves two or more teams.
Reread the definition. It says "Number of things". Which means plural, positive and whole entities. You lack comprehension. It is possible to have 2-team groups. End of.
Yes you could have a group of two, but I believe the better term in soccer is a paring, I mean a "group of 2" is the same as a home-away elimination "group", I guess we could argue that every single round in the champions league is a group phase, the groups of 2 in the Pre-main group elimination, then the main group of 4, then a bunch of groups of 2 all the way to the final group game, aka the Final.
Yeah, but this was just for the sake of clarity in the original post. It would muddle things up to say "So, if we eliminate hand-downs, then we'll have groups and pairings." It's better to say "groups of 3 and 2". But both ways would be acceptable. So, any way you look at it, HMD elimination would create uneven groups (or groups+pairings ). But, it would prevent also-ran chumps like Guadalajara and RSL from participating. I know C-CAF would never be bold enough to eliminate HMDs, which could lead to Mexico having only 2 slots. So this is all pie-in-the-sky. Just something fun to discuss while we wait for the next matchday. There is nothing else to do when the CCL is not running.
To respond to the original question - I can see your point about the hand-me-downs. However, rather that shitcanning these teams, how about a play-in competition for those spots. Maybe RSL plays Chivas and a few other clubs with the top two clubs getting 23rd and 24th spots.
Maybe we should just go back to the previous CCL format with the preliminary round Although, I have to admit I am liking how there is less fixture congestion this year.
Well, there would be no 24th spot if HMDs had to play-in to the group stage. At most, there'd be 23 group stage spots. I wouldn't mind a prelim rd for HMDs only. But if there's an odd number of HMDs, then we have a problem.