09 Mar 2016 11:33:12
All the talk of late of changes to champions league, its not surprising that AC Milan are one of the main teams pushing for reform. They are a shadow of their former glory days, an average Serie A team these days.
Just sheer arrogance on their behalf when they think that although they simply are not good enough to qualify for competition, cause they are AC Milan they should be in it!
Really hope this plan fails, money is killing the game.
09 Mar 2016 13:00:59
Personally I d like to see these clubs push ahead with this and then sit and watch it come crashing down when all their associations say this ridiculous and ban them as they should from domestic leagues. What are they going to call it the super Duper champions league where 8th place ac Milan play 8th place Liverpool or 9th place international play 11th place Chelsea 😂😂 quick where do I subscribe.
09 Mar 2016 13:01:22
Spot on. Either these clubs just F off and have their own league or leave the CL as it is (bar a few changes) . Basically, the big clubs qualifying regardless of where they finish is scandalous. It would take a huge edge out of every league. Teams battling go qualify makes it exciting.
{Ed007's Note - And no doubt the 'few changes' you want will involve making it easier for CFC to get in?}
09 Mar 2016 13:49:41
Honestly, I'm over the Champion's League. It does nothing for me.
People go on and on about the money but that's not why I support Celtic - and it's not why I go to games.
It was exciting when it started, and in all honesty it peaked about ten years ago. As I say, I'm over it now and the Europa League, for all it's faults has actually diluted the champion's league (format) in my view.
I would love to go back to unseeded, two leg knock out tournament starting in August and ending in May. A proper European Cup. Real vs Chelsea first round? Tough titty. A giant will fall.
It won't happen for obvious reasons but we can hope. And until then, I'm over it.
09 Mar 2016 13:42:24
Not at all. More to do with the seeding for the group stages. I know there were talks to change it but i don't know if it's going ahead or not. I just can't see any reason why say Bayern shouldn't draw Barcelona in the groups, other than to give them a better chance of progression. The knock outs are becoming pretty monotonous watching the same ties every other season. Or better yet just an all knock out format like domestic cups.
{Ed007's Note - Unless it aids the bigger clubs there won't be any changes, it's been the same for years. Doing away with seeding in the current format would make it even harder for us to qualify and if you go back to a knock-out competition the TV and sponsorship money would significantly drop.}
09 Mar 2016 14:26:40
I'm only asking the question, but if Platini is finally ousted, would it not be possible that a new man in charge could bring some changes in?
Candidates for these positions usually come out with the line about being fair to everyone, not just the elite.
Maybe there might be some candidate who actually means it.
{Ed007's Note - The clubs hold the power, Gerry and UEFA will do whatever they can to keep them sweet and keep the £ rolling in. The breakaway league would probably mean the end of UEFA as we know it as the teams involved will resign and take the TV money and advertising revenue with them.
People have laughed at me (an others) for years for saying that the CL was slowly killing off football but is. Forget the effect of this breakaway league, even closer to home it's now not good enough for a CFC manager to win the league and cup, people are happy to see us getting thumped in Europe simply because of the £ involved, where's the competitiveness in that?
Remember years ago people used to say Scotland had too many teams and we should have less leagues etc? Well now the European big guns are treating us the way the bigger clubs in Scotland treated your East Fifes and Cowdenbeaths for years. Was it Aberdeen that weren't relegated because Falkirk's stadium wasn't up to SPFL standards? The likes of Real Madrid, Barca and Bayern etc all think we're minnows and there's more money for them with us out the way, we're seen as a hindrance to them.}
09 Mar 2016 14:47:36
No ed it isn't good enough to not make it especially when it's Malmö and Maribor stopping us.
{Ed007's Note - It doesn't matter to Real Madrid who beats CFC, they look at us the same way they look at Malmo and Maribor - insignificant.}
09 Mar 2016 14:55:52
I think the competition could benefit from changing format in alternate years. One year in the current format and every second year as an old-fashioned straight knock-out. That way it would be kept fresh with even the smaller (poorer) teams at least having a chance sometimes with a kind draw and then people wouldn't have the tediousness of the same teams always playing each other like we have now. As Ed and some of you have pointed out, the big guns won't go for it because of the money but it would breathe some new life into a tournament which, in my opinion, is losing its appeal.
{Ed007's Note - It lost it's appeal to me years ago, Kev.}
09 Mar 2016 15:34:15
Yeah, apart from Celtic being in it, I'm fairly over it myself Ed. Every now and then it throws up something magic like Messi's performance against Bayern last season but even the die hards are starting to grumble about yet another Chelsea/ PSG tie.
09 Mar 2016 18:23:12
Jim Tim as I posted before the club's left behind in their domestic league need to ensure that the break-away clubs and players are treated as ( was it Laver? ) and his players were in cricket . Players and clubs banned from domestic football and International football for life .
I might be wrong but I don't think there is a great appetite for watching Real Madrrid v AC Milan or whoever .
The big attractions in football are the long term rivalries with fans from both clubs the normal rather than exception
Cross European leagues especially 3rd or 4th division will certainly not be attractive . D D maybe working for it but I don't necessary think it is in our, the supporters interests.
09 Mar 2016 18:51:47
This football elite seem to forget that their entire revenue stream is supplied by us plebs, I for one won't give them a penny. Can't remember the last time I even tuned into let alone subscribed to anything that didn't involve CFC.
09 Mar 2016 18:57:18
At least we can boast that our club have been there and done. God bless the Lisbon lions and God bless jock stein.
Hail hail.
09 Mar 2016 19:14:49
Prime example Chelsea psg on tonight two massive financial big hitters and I have no interest in it whatsoever the Mrs will watch her soaps I am in the bath with a beer listening to the Sevco comedy radio snyde then I will time it for 8pm and go watch a movie with the Mrs and have my 4 month old daughter snoozing on my legs. That's definitely more appealing to me. But if celtic were playing away to a Portuguese second division team the Mrs and the wee yin would be papped round the corner at her mams to give me peace to cheer on the hoops. That's how much a lack of appeal non celtic games have for me?
{Ed007's Note - I probably won't watch any CL games until the final, I never even bothered watching the Real Madrid game last night. I'm looking forward to the Man Utd v Liverpool match, in fact that's probably the first non-CFC game I've looked forward to this season.}
09 Mar 2016 19:33:37
As far as i'm aware chris there's absolutely nothing stopping these clubs just going and setting up their new league. Why would there be? Unless they're binded by contract to UEFA? Money talks. My theory is that these ECA clubs - the continental ones anyway - are just envious of the money the likes of Bournemouth or Watford can get just by surviving in the BPL. We all know it's about money. Just let them get on with it. But go away and do it, don't stop hard working teams and clubs who aren't big having any chance of European football. All I care about is CFC. I for one am happy that we're top of the league and in the Scottish Cup, which I know plenty on here aren't. But I'm not going to lie, I enjoy the European nights just as much.
09 Mar 2016 19:38:06
I think that it's the TV money that's killing football as much as the Champions league, the money that English clubs will be getting next season is absolutely obscene. Why else would the likes of Guardiola be going to Manchester City.
It's not impossible that Bayern Munich could win the Champions league this season and Man City could fail to qualify for the competition next season, but that hasn't stopped Guardiola committing himself to City next season, it seems even the Champions league can't compete with the English premier league when it comes to money.
I really hope that one day all this money and greed will come crashing down on them and football can get back to being a sport again.
Clubs in England no longer want to win trophies, they would far rather finish fourth in the league rather than win the FA cup, and they've brainwashed their fans into thinking this way as well.
Fans in England would save themselves a lot of money if they just picked a company off the stock market and watched to see how much money these companies are worth, because at the end of the day that's all their doing with their clubs. Arsenal last night put out a weakened team in the only competition they have a realistic chance of winning, yet down here nobody sees anything wrong with that.
It's not the game I was brought up with.
{Ed007's Note - Is there any CFC supporters that would accept finishing second in the league if it still meant CL qualification?}
09 Mar 2016 20:20:38
Most definitely the man u Liverpool game has a bit of spice to it as would a Barcelona real Madrid match but the rest you've seen them all multiple times and I just don't get the buzz watching them. Too much trying to get the opposite teams players into trouble than trying to play football most of the time? Listening to snyde the zombies are in a frenzy at the man with the magic hat how the new team play like the Brazilians of the 70's and are going to anihilate the champions of Scotland.
{Ed007's Note - You'll go to the bad fire for listening to that $hite.}
09 Mar 2016 20:52:34
I'm glad I am not the only one who is fed up with CL. When they started letting 3rd and 4th placed teams into the pot to the detriment of ACTUAL National League Champions then that was it for me. Spot on Ed. we and others are treated as minnows and just a speed bump in the way of the big guns and their cash.
The point about some of the teams we have failed to beat is also fair. Regardless of CL, we have been dumped by teams which could be considered equal or less to Celtic and we should have taken them but failed miserably.
Anyway, league and cup double will be great but right now neither of them are in the bag.
09 Mar 2016 21:12:55
I can't understand where all this morale high ground stuff has came from. It's only recently that we have started talking about champions league should be for champions. We have finished second to rangers before and still qualified for cl and if I remember correctly there were still 60 thousand inside Celtic park. No morale objections. No calls for us as the second placed Scottish team of that year to be removed and re placed with the Welsh or Irish champions. Greed was good enough for us then and it was good for us in 1998 when we helped create the spl and said fu (k the rest of Scottish football. We currently recieve double what the second place team gets for winning the league I've never heard one Celtic fan calling for money to be distributed more even across Scotland. And we all no for certain if Celtic were asked to join the epl and forget Scottish football or join an elite European league there would be little to no morale outrage because we are part of it. We are only outraged we haven't been asked to the party. Of course some may disagree but they are kidding themselves.