UEFA chief Michel Platini, who won the presidency on a campaign of reforming the Champions’ League, announced his reforms on November 30. The reforms are to take effect beginning in 2009-10, which include the final on a Saturday (increasing viewership) and scrapping the Intertoto Cup. The major part of the plan, though, is a reform to the Champions’ League group stages, where, Platini hoped, would provide the competition with newer faces and give UEFA’s smaller federations- long shut out of the competition in general- a better shot at the prize and competing in the more lucrative stages.
However, his plan falls short. This is Platini’s plan to “reform” the Champions’ League: have 22 “direct entries” into the group stage (including the top three teams in the top three leagues- i.e., England, Spain and Italy) and have ten “qualifies”, determined from two sets of qualifying rounds. One set will feature the fourth place teams from England, Spain and Italy taking on the second place teams (remember that) from the No. 6-15 federations, while the other will see the champions of the No. 16-53 federations (except Liechtenstein, which does not organize a league competition). Five qualifiers will be selected from each group.
On the surface, it looks great- there is only one team from federations ranked No. 16 to No. 53 (“Europe B” I’ll label them, for convenience) in this year’s Champions’ League (Rosenborg BK of Norway) after two qualified last year (Levski Sofia of Bulgaria and FC Copenhagen of Denmark), so to have five of them in the group stages would be a major shake-up. Plus, instead of seeing the No. 1-15 federations (“Europe A”) teams feast on the Europe B teams in those glorified exhibition matches that are better known as the Third Qualifying Round, those teams are going to have to play each other, ensuring more competitive matches. There- more variety and a more difficult path for the biggest clubs in Europe, which is what Platini was hoping for.However, Platini’s changes are really nothing more than cosmetic ones. These are the federations ranked No. 6-15: Portugal, Romania, Netherlands, Russia, Scotland, Ukraine, Belgium, Czech Republic, Turkey and Greece, with No. 4 and No. 5 being France and Germany. Yes, it means that the likes of, say, Liverpool, Sevilla and Lazio would have to play teams like AEK Athens, Sporting Lisbon and Beşiktaş instead of HiT Gorica, Pobeda and FC Almaty (cookies for anyone who knows where those teams play), but it still doesn’t mean they won’t get through to the group stage- the No. 6-15 teams have very rarely ever been much competition for teams in the higher leagues, so Europe’s Big Three leagues will still send their customary four teams to the group stage. As for the five Europe B teams now in the group stage: considering recent history (except for Rosenborg’s surprising run this year which may net them a knockout stage berth, no team from Europe B has made it to the knockout round in its current form, spanning five seasons, and have not made a knockout stage since Rosenborg themselves reached the quarterfinals in 1997), these teams will be nothing more than cannon fodder. At this rate, anyone reproducing Liverpool’s 8-0 victory over Beşiktaş would be considered “a disappointment”.
If Platini really wanted change, why not have separate groups for Europe A and Europe B, with the Round of 16 being where they link up? Yeah, the “cannon fodder effect” might still occur then (considering the opposition), but in a knockout stage there’s less room for error, so there’s a greater chance of an upset. Besides, this would provide the Europe B federations considerably more prize money than the paltry pickings they get now (and what they would get from the group stage) and might help them build teams capable of winning on Europe’s greatest stage. If Platini is worried about exposure, UEFA could market these “little clubs” better (first of all) and could even stage “inter-group” games that count in the standings. The Europe B teams might still have a hard time winning any of those games, but with any luck, the revenue generated from these games (and from the knockout stage games) would speed up their development faster than the current proposal will.
*sigh* I had so much promise for Platini’s efforts…instead, it’s going to be business as usual come 2009. So much for those meaningful reforms.
-DG
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