New Champions League format being discussed

[DJnVa]

I know not every has access to The Athletic (but you should):
https://theathletic.com/1630609/2020/02/25/champions-league-leicester-sheffutd-uefa-celtic-ajax/?source=shared-article

In a document, which The Athletic has seen, Danish champions FC Copenhagen have proposed an idea that would let the top four leagues (Spain, England, Germany and Italy) keep their four Champions League slots but not necessarily their free passes into the group phase.

The plan, which is understood to have support from regular Champions League qualifying-round participants Ajax and Celtic, would see every club that has qualified for the competition ranked from one to 79 in an “entry list” based on their results in Europe over the 10 previous seasons.

If used this season, all four of the Premier League’s entrants would still have gone straight into the group stage, as they did under the current system. Galatasaray and Genk, however, would have had to come through two rounds of qualifying, Lille and Lokomotiv Moscow three rounds and RB Leipzig and Atalanta, who lead Valencia 4-1 after the first leg of their last-16 contest, would have started in the first round.

This season’s big winners from the “Copenhagen Access Model” would have been Ajax, Dynamo Kiev, Olympiakos, Porto and PSV Eindhoven, all of whom would have gone straight into the group stage as opposed to the qualifying rounds, from which only Ajax and Olympiakos ended up progressing.

But, for example, if Leicester City, Sheffield United or Wolverhampton Wanderers finished in the top four (or five, depending on what happens with Manchester City and FFP) of the Premier League, they could expect to be placed in either the first or second round of Champions League qualifying next summer — the point at which champions and runners-up from mid-ranking leagues currently enter.

More at link, I can't quote it all.

 

[InstaFace]

I support the theory but not the mechanics as-proposed. Not only will big-4 leagues and teams never agree to something that could place them that low in qualification, it's simply stupid to have that big a TV draw playing that many useless, near-throwaway matches while risking not making the group stage at all. League coefficient needs to be more of a factor. Having EPL teams in the Playoff round or even 3rd-round qualifiers is fine, but 1st and 2nd rounds would just be an insult they would never accept.

This whole "Trailing 10 years of history" thing is also enormously anticompetitive and ossifying. Man United haven't done shit other than the 2017 Europa League but their rep and budget have gotten the red carpet rolled out for them. I realize that aspect is probably a way for the high-quality minnows to get the big fish to throw them a bone ("we'll protect you if you protect us"), but I just don't see how it benefits the competition or interest levels, from either a business or a competitive-fairness standpoint.

I do love the proposal for a Swiss matchups system. I always loved that in my policy debate days, because every matchup after the first 2 is one that you could reasonably expect to win, so you're testing yourself at the margins of your ability, rather than praying for some massive, shocking upset (or praying against it if you're the much bigger fish). I realize that was a sidenote appended to the article about the Copenhagen plan, but if that's an alternative or complementary proposal being bandied around, I hope it gets more traction.