CL Seeding

[Yankee_Gooner_Dandee]

Lacross may be played by a wealthier portion of people, but it is definitely not a soft sport.

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

Seriously lacrosse isn't that for pampered soft rich people.

Having lived in America, I can confirm this - yes.

It's grown significantly in popularity over the past 5 or so years, it is very much a prep sport.

Have a couple of those defenseman smack your wrists with a metal pole incessantly for 60 minutes twice a week and see if you still think lacrosse players are soft.

Exactly my boy is a big unit and plays rugby and he says lacrosse is worse for receiving injuries, he literally has bruises from head to toe after a game.

He's not pampered, I myself grew up in the worse road in this (and would be in most) town where my Dad said that even the Alsatians walked around in pairs

But I started a business and staked my house and everything I had on it, so I just wanted my son to be well educated and avoid the bother I was always in and thankfully it has worked out.

[arseofacrow]

I think something like this has already been proposed and ridiculed.

Don't know why. Imagine this as the group stages:

Barcelona
Liverpool
Monaco
Juventus

Bayern Munich
Ath. Madrid
Man United (when they're actually good)
PSG

Real Madrid
Chelsea
Porto
Roma

Arsenal
Man City
Dortmund
Inter

Or something along those lines, that'd sure as sh*t prove a more entertaining affair than the current CL set up - it would also be a more accurate assessment of who really is the best team in Europe as the top teams would play each other incessantly.

To the exclusion of actual champions of their countries?

Why don't we just force all clubs from small countries out of existence so that we can be more entertained on TV.

It's in this way that football's losing it's soul.

[Mistical92]

I'd rather see the top 4 teams from Germany, England and Spain than more teams of the calibre of Ludgorets etc. As others have said, the reason why there are more teams from those leagues is because those leagues have shown themselves to be better in European competition. That's how the co-efficient works and IMO it does a good job. If you want more qualification places then you have to prove that your league is good enough to warrant them, that's why Serie A and the SPL have lost places in recent years.

As for the seeding league champions, I think that's bollocks. The reason Man City haven't been in Pot 1 yet is because they've been crap in the CL over the last 3 seasons and the 2 before that they weren't in it, whereas we've been good enough to get out of our group each time in the last 5 years (which gains you an full bonus point each year).

[arseofacrow]

I'd rather see the top 4 teams from Germany, England and Spain than more teams of the calibre of Ludgorets etc. As others have said, the reason why there are more teams from those leagues is because those leagues have shown themselves to be better in European competition. That's how the co-efficient works and IMO it does a good job. If you want more qualification places then you have to prove that your league is good enough to warrant them, that's why Serie A and the SPL have lost places in recent years.

As for the seeding league champions, I think that's bollocks. The reason Man City haven't been in Pot 1 yet is because they've been crap in the CL over the last 3 seasons and the 2 before that they weren't in it, whereas we've been good enough to get out of our group each time in the last 5 years (which gains you an full bonus point each year).

I despair. The leagues that are better tend to be bigger countries with more money. That's how they createtheir self-sustaining power.

At least UEFA tried to address the situation by giving an easier route to the champions of leagues rather than frauds like us.

Peoplle like you are going to kill off the ambitions of the smaller teams and it makes me sick.

[Supagoon]

It will just lead to a semi final of Benfica vs Man Utd, what a delightful precession that will be.

Any money Real Madrid will be looking for their 15th European trophy by 2020.

[greengooner]

The changes are long overdue, our 17 years of failure in the money league should not result in us landing in the first pot, TBH we should be dropped into the 4 place champions bowl and take our chances with three of the big boys

[Dan_85]

Uefa have confirmed that the champions of top 7 European leagues will go into Champions League pot one next season, along with holders

So Arsenal no longer in Pot 1 for the group stages from next season, if we make top 4 of course. I look forward to us taking a pasting off Bayern even earlier in the CL season than usual

Of course this is really a cop out. UEFA should really make it so that only Champions go into the Champions League but that would mean them missing out on lots of lovely cash...

[Blood_Gooner]

Fair enough really. As much as I'd love to scrap seeding completely to stop clubs like us from hitching onto the gravy train straight into the last 16 every year, it would be even worse to end up with 3 or 4 heavy-weights in one group and two or three groups filled with complete dross.

If it were a tournament of only league winners and maybe runners up, then there wouldn't really be any group filled with complete dross, should they do away with seeding system.

[Offside]

The seeding change is not good news for us. But who cares? We never do anything in the CL anyway. Struggle through an easy group and get absolutely gubbed by the elite.

[mcdowell42]

Great news now maybe next season the Muppet in charge might make some semblance of trying to win the PL.finishing 4th I presume could possibly mean we end up in pot 3.

[northbank123]

Fair enough really. As much as I'd love to scrap seeding completely to stop clubs like us from hitching onto the gravy train straight into the last 16 every year, it would be even worse to end up with 3 or 4 heavy-weights in one group and two or three groups filled with complete dross.

If it were a tournament of only league winners and maybe runners up, then there wouldn't really be any group filled with complete dross, should they do away with seeding system.

You look at the top two clubs in the 15th and 16th best leagues in Europe. Not pretty.