UEFA Champions League 2021/22

[Lineker]

Final has been moved to Paris.

[gunnar hendershow]

Just saw that news. Wouldn't you know it, my wife and I have a trip slated to Paris from May 15th to the 27th... 

[METALMAN]

1 hour ago, Lineker said:

Final has been moved to Paris.

It’s the only way a European trophy will be coming to Paris

[DavidMarrio]

Least I won't have to travel far to see us win our fourth trophy this season....

[DavidMarrio]

Stop changing competitions to even sillier formats! 

[Baddar]

That's been in the pipeline for a while now. It was spoken about last year. I actually don't hate the new proposed format.

[Bobfoc]

Having at least four extra matches before the knockout stages will presumably mean that the top clubs put even less effort into domestic cup competitions.

How do they decide who each team plays in their ten matches? Is it based on a ranking system? I'm guessing that teams from the same country won't play each other in the group stage.

[Baddar]

Yeah I recall it being "teams of varying levels" or something like that was used before. 

[Colly]

I'll be interested to see how it works, on the face of it a 36 team league where placements are assigned based on 10 matches feels a bit absurd.

Newcastle will win it regardless so who cares.

[Bobfoc]

As someone who doesn't support a top club, I've found that the gradual expansion of the Champions League has sucked the fun out of other competitions. Getting into the Champions League has become the be-all and end-all for the big teams because of the financial rewards, while the Europa League, once a highly prestigious tournament, is seen by the same clubs as a trinket that's beneath them.

It's the same for the FA Cup and League Cup. They've become such afterthoughts with clubs pursuing the all-important top four spots. It almost seems as if the big clubs win them begrudgingly.

[DavidMarrio]

1 hour ago, Bobfoc said:

As someone who doesn't support a top club, I've found that the gradual expansion of the Champions League has sucked the fun out of other competitions. Getting into the Champions League has become the be-all and end-all for the big teams because of the financial rewards, while the Europa League, once a highly prestigious tournament, is seen by the same clubs as a trinket that's beneath them.

It's the same for the FA Cup and League Cup. They've become such afterthoughts with clubs pursuing the all-important top four spots. It almost seems as if the big clubs win them begrudgingly.

I've really enjoyed our cup runs so far this season. It was amazing getting back to Wembley and I've got a memory that'll last a lifetime.  Klopp has often heavily rotated for the cups but it's felt different this season and we seem to have a stronger squad as well and I could honestly see us going for it with the FA Cup as well.  

Champions League is engrained with the club and if you ask a lot of fans it's such a massive competition. I still do think the introduction of the Conference League is daft and I do think they should have left the Uefa Cup as the Uefa Cup. 

I think the addition of more games from a player welfare point of view isn't good and there's still a lot of questions. It feels very random in the sense of it looks like they've just threw a bunch of random ideas together. 

[gunnar hendershow]

Basically creating an unbalanced schedule of sorts with the 10 matches is so odd. I get it'll be broken up by some form of seeding but it definitely keeps the really exciting clubs from smaller leagues down much more than occurs in the current group format.

Why they couldn't just do 6 groups of 6 with the exact same number of matches I don't know.

[Bobfoc]

27 minutes ago, DavidMarrio said:

Champions League is engrained with the club and if you ask a lot of fans it's such a massive competition. I still do think the introduction of the Conference League is daft and I do think they should have left the Uefa Cup as the Uefa Cup. 

Obviously, the Champions League is massive. I've got no problems with it being the top European club competition. I just think that it's come at the expense of the other European competitions, and the massive gulf in prize money has meant that finishing in the top four has become more important to clubs than anything else.

Finishing second in the league used to mean that you went into the UEFA Cup, and that in and of itself was an honour. Now you get fans hoping their club finishes outside the top seven so they don't have to bother with it.

[Benjamin]

I fucking hate the big table format. Fucking stupid. 

[Colly]

10 hours ago, damhausen said:

Basically creating an unbalanced schedule of sorts with the 10 matches is so odd. I get it'll be broken up by some form of seeding but it definitely keeps the really exciting clubs from smaller leagues down much more than occurs in the current group format.

Why they couldn't just do 6 groups of 6 with the exact same number of matches I don't know.

Yeah I was thinking this, and unless the fixtures are really mixed up in all practicality it might end up feeling like that anyway.

I can see whinging going on when the lists come out, people complain enough about the Premier League ones and at least they're all "play everyone home and away".

[Baddar]

Can't wait for us to be paired with Bayern, Real Madrid and Juventus in games, whilst Liverpool's toughest game will be Angers.

Well it'd anger me that's for sure. 

[Adam]

That format sounds awful. I don't tend to care about the Champions League until the latter stages anyway but I don't see why they thought that was a good idea.

[DavidMarrio]

2 hours ago, Baddar said:

Can't wait for us to be paired with Bayern, Real Madrid and Juventus in games, whilst Liverpool's toughest game will be Angers.

Well it'd anger me that's for sure. 

Well they've gotta ensure that Bayern/Madrid/Juve get a crap team as part of their ten games or whatever it is.

That's if you're not competing in the Conference League that season 

[METALMAN]

A combination of the Champions League moving to BT Sport, ridiculously one-sided group stage games and moves by UEFA and the big clubs to stack the odds in favour of English, German, Italian and Spanish clubs has destroyed the great affection I once had for the competition. It's a joke now.

[Szumi]

Mbappe is now a major doubt for PSG at Real after picking up a foot injury today.

It's a legitimate injury, but cue the conspiracy theories!