wco81 wrote:So triumph of socialism over capitalism?
Revenue sharing over inequality with the richer getting richer?
Tradition over profit maximization?
I'm afraid it's not. I'm happy for fans of Man Utd, Liverpool, etc but in general, the Virus that the european Football got infected with 20-25 years ago still exists. UEFA closed (not sure it's official though) a € 4.5 bill deal with a company today. The major pieces of that cake will be taken by the couple of big Teams which will make them more powerful again. The goal has to be to close the gap. Among people I know the qualifications for the Champions League is more interesting than the actual Competition. We need more parity. We need Teams like Ferencvaros, Rapid or Legia to step up and make some noise in Knockout stages. 20 years ago me and all of my friends rooted for a Shevchenko-led Dynamo Kiev to win it all. Hey, an Team from Eastern Europe getting all the sympathies in Central Europe!!! We need more stories like that. Nobody wants to see the same 3 spanish Teams in the Semifinals all over again.
I'm not against 4 Teams from the best Leagues. I know it is business and they need to make money and everything but give everybody an equal chance. Make just the Champions qualify directly for the Group stage and let the others play the qualification in a non-Champion route. Give more spots to the actual CHAMPIONS of their Leagues. Sure, the gap won't close in year one but after a couple of seasons things would develop the right way.