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English report by goal.com [for easy splell] -
original news from more reliable source: german Die Bildhttp://www.bild.de/sport/fussball/nachgehakt/kolumne-alfred-draxler-23525676.bild.html

Platini considering scrapping Europa League in favour of extending Champions League - report

The 56-year-old is understood to be planning on widening Europe's premier club competition to 64 teams, but at the cost of the secondary tournament, which could be defunct by 2016

Uefa president Michel Platini has contemplated the idea of scrapping the Europa League in favour of extending the Champions League to 64 teams in four years time, according to Bild.

In what would be the biggest shake-up in Europe's club competitions since the rebranding of the European Cup to its current form in 1992, the former France midfielder is reportedly planning on creating a single continental tournament.
Currently, the secondary competition generates far lower revenue for clubs than is produced by the Champions League, a problem Platini is increasingly concerned about, while it has been a target for much criticism since its evolution from the Uefa Cup in 2009.
To address this, Platini wants to increase the number of teams in the Champions League group stage to 64 teams in 2016, effectively absorbing most of the clubs from the Europa League.
Renowned European nations such as Spain, England and Germany would then be given six league berths each in their respective top-flight divisions.
In addition, the reform would ensure more scope would be given to lesser countries, including those from the likes of Latvia, Belarus and Slovakia.

Bound to be part of Chinners duty, but thought it deserved a thread for separate discussion.
I am currently affected by a paranoid mood until season end, but seem to me that plenty of effort is gonna be deployed to avoid several traditional Tops [Liverpool, possibly Arsenal, Inter Milan, Juventus(which is running out of money and won't easily repeat next seasons). Additionaly no politician is immune fm the temptation to please lesser countries bringing votes.

Two different angles:
from City point of view: won't affect the unstoppable raise but shall help traditional fading Clubs to fight back.
from Fans point of view: it' s a fucking joke, a disgrace to football, while I still managing to digest that a Team finished fouth is allowed to compete with True National Champions.

Thoughts?

'Currently, the secondary competition generates far lower revenue for clubs than is produced by the Champions League, a problem Platini is increasingly concerned about, while it has been a target for much criticism since its evolution from the Uefa Cup in 2009'

Money money money, and this from a guy who's trying to bring in 'Financial Fair Play' LOL. Rich get richer, poor stay poor.

Personally I think they should scrap the whole pantomime and go back to the 3 old knock-out competitions. Oops I forgot, they dont generate enough TV money!

££££££££££££

Thats the sole reason. Nothing to do with football reasons at all.

Uefa themselves totally marginalised the Europa League by a number of their measures

1) Making it play on a Thursday (or wednesday afternoons in our case);
2) Making it required to play about 26 games to win it from the group stage;
3) Allowing CL dropouts to come into it at the knock-out stage.
4) Slanting all the prize or TV money totally towards the CL & the clubs in that.

Top 6 all into the same competition reduces the effect of the domestic leagues for big clubs as it would be impossible for the same big teams not to qualify every year, even when fielding their reserve sides, and thats what Uefa wants - to ensure the same big boys get into their lounge every year. What a joke.

I find it refreshing that three of the Sky Four may not make it into the Champion's League next season.

Hardly surprising that Platini et al. are already looking to remedy that.

Esky wrote:I find it refreshing that three of the Sky Four may not make it into the Champion's League next season.

Hardly surprising that Platini et al. are already looking to remedy that.

It has always been on the cards hasn't it ?

This is the real reason the so called 'fair play' rules were introduced; an attempt to stop the old guard from being left behind. Now the realisation that those same teams could be left without enough money to buy players under the same 'fair play' rulings if they were to miss out on the Champion's Lg, brings about this idea. Sickening.

This would effectively destroy the whole purpose of the European Cup, which was for CHAMPIONS to play each other. Basically, the so called Champions League would become the UEFA Cup. Ridiculous.

Of course the more games & teams involved, the tighter the grip UEFA have on football in general.

It's time to break away from this organisation. They are not needed.

Idiotic decision. Just look of type of games we had this year in the Chumps and what teams made it in the later stages. Although when Johansson was the boss, UEFA were a bunch of greedy cunts, we still had a real competition, where everybody wanted in, everybody fighted for their place and so on.

Now he wants for everybody to get in. This isn't for the money, because the sponsors aren't that happy, but it is for the future votes for the chair of UEFA boss. By doing this, Platini will allow himself to get votes from smaller teams all over Europe.

Beside that, i think it's madness to pay 20 mil for evey club that enters the group. How do they know the clubs will reinvest the money? I can tell you for sure that Otelul, the ex team that faced Scum, used only 1 mil from that money, the rest dissapeared in some offshore accounts that nobody knows.

Ted Hughes wrote:

Esky wrote:I find it refreshing that three of the Sky Four may not make it into the Champion's League next season.

Hardly surprising that Platini et al. are already looking to remedy that.

It has always been on the cards hasn't it ?

This is the real reason the so called 'fair play' rules were introduced; an attempt to stop the old guard from being left behind. Now the realisation that those same teams could be left without enough money to buy players under the same 'fair play' rulings if they were to miss out on the Champion's Lg, brings about this idea. Sickening.

This would effectively destroy the whole purpose of the European Cup, which was for CHAMPIONS to play each other. Basically, the so called Champions League would become the UEFA Cup. Ridiculous.

Of course the more games & teams involved, the tighter the grip UEFA have on football in general.

It's time to break away from this organisation. They are not needed.

Couldn't agree more Ted, but you're in for a tough time if you think england will break away. Far too much money involved sadly.

I wonder if all of this would be happening if say, scum, bayern and real madrid were bought out by wealthy people, instead of us, PSG and Malaga?...

UEFA are far weaker than people think. If half a dozen clubs; Barca Real Bayern AC ourselves and the scum said fuck off we're going it alone Platini would be up a gum tree without a paddle. So far that hasn't happened but Platini has to do everything he can to keep the europan elite happy. I'm not sure this plan would do that. Wouldn't it mean more Champion's League matches for the elite which would add to an already crowded schedule? There again maybe the clubs are so stupidly greedy that they think they can milk players more and more to get more and more money. They can't.

blues2win wrote:UEFA are far weaker than people think. If half a dozen clubs; Barca Real Bayern AC ourselves and the scum said fuck off we're going it alone Platini would be up a gum tree without a paddle. So far that hasn't happened but Platini has to do everything he can to keep the europan elite happy. I'm not sure this plan would do that. Wouldn't it mean more Champion's League matches for the elite which would add to an already crowded schedule? There again maybe the clubs are so stupidly greedy that they think they can milk players more and more to get more and more money. They can't.

This is what I'm talking about above. Not England breaking away but a host of top clubs backed by people somewhere who have loads of money & access to tv etc (wonder who that could be). If ten/15 top clubs just said we don't want to play in your competition anymore & created their own, that would automatically become the top competition. If UEFA tried to use the domestic leagues to impose sanctions, the tv companies involved could offer those leagues a deal too, leaving UEFA a choice of running their UEFA cup & shutting their faces or being left with the dregs.

I don't think that the fact a tournament has been organised at U21 level without any involvement from UEFA, should be underestimated. Imo, it's a dry run for this kind of situation. Once the clubs can organise tournaments for themselves, why do they need to give those freeloading cunts a share of any money they make ?

blues2win wrote:UEFA are far weaker than people think. If half a dozen clubs; Barca Real Bayern AC ourselves and the scum said fuck off we're going it alone Platini would be up a gum tree without a paddle. So far that hasn't happened but Platini has to do everything he can to keep the europan elite happy. I'm not sure this plan would do that. Wouldn't it mean more Champion's League matches for the elite which would add to an already crowded schedule? There again maybe the clubs are so stupidly greedy that they think they can milk players more and more to get more and more money. They can't.

It wouldn't automatically mean more matches for everyone - I would imagine the lower the qualified position the more matches played, with the top few positions (current qualifying positions) being largely unaffected. It seems to be a move to extend the exposure for their advertisers in the CL to me. I wouldn't be surprised if the planned implimentation coincided with sponsorship renewal/renegotiation.