‘Thursday nights, Channel 5’ used to be the chant that rang around the terraces of Champions League hopefuls looking like they were about to fall short of their holy grail.
These days much derided as a competition, the current incarnation of what was once the more highly valued UEFA Cup has undergone so many rebranding exercises it is making the British weather look consistent.
Then finally this week we hear news that the whole thing may be scrapped by UEFA all together, put out its misery like a mangy crippled street dog, put down to rid the neighbourhood of its embarrassing presence.
Michel Platini, the former cultured footballer, now tortured soccer politician, is seemingly desperately scrabbling around for any new idea to consolidate UEFA’s power over European football, lest the continental giants finally do make their long threatened break away to create some form of European Super League.
His recent press release outlining a vision for extending the Champions League by doubling its entrants, ultimately allowing large leagues like the English Premier League up to SEVEN teams to enter, smacks all too much of a European Super League by (not very well concealed) stealth. Would it work? In my opinion probably not, at least not in the earliest of stages. I sincerely doubt there will be a worldwide appeal to watch the seventh best teams in Germany and England competing against each other in a larger early league format. Yet, as now, football giants such as AC Milan Vs Man Utd in the quarter final knock-out stages retain their allure.
So, to improve European competition instead of expanding one competition and allowing the rest like the Europa League to die, what about actually making it harder to enter the Champions League?
Despite what the name suggests, the Champions League has long lost the exclusivity of having the Champions of all European football leagues, competing to see who truly is thebest. By making a competition harder to get in, it makes it harder to win and therefore actually more prestigious – which is exactly what it used to be in the days of the European Cup.
Of course, with a more exclusive Champions League there then becomes a much greater appetite for further European competitions. Once again, just look through history to see the credence given to the UEFA Cup and Cup Winners Cup pre the mid-nineties. Better teams with a heart for international or at least intercontinental acclaim competed much harder. A better competition with teams like Arsenal, Valencia and PSG all finishing high in their domestic leagues would all benefit from the quality European experience in pushing on to actually win the title in their own country. Better and more diverse experiences help spread better knowledge and develop better coaching and teams.
A competition like this would easily attract more sponsorship and therefore, there would be higher finances to make it even more lucrative.
In fact, even the more recent versions of the UEFA Cup and Europa League have been treated quite seriously by some serious footballing heavyweights. A quick glance down the winners list since the European Cup become the Champions League illustrates the following: