Another great column by Martin Samuel here
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3787806/Europe-s-elite-shafting-poor-enjoy-Leicester-City-can.html
Leicester versus Bruges is the tie of this Champions League round, from the neutral perspective. Not one of those stellar occasions, all super coaches and superstars, but new names and fresh faces.
Later in the tournament, a familiar gathering of Europe's grand dames will face off for the umpteenth time. For now, we're all waiting to see how Leicester do.
But make the most of it. By the time the great Champions League carve-up has reached its end game, there will be about as much chance of Leicester breaking through in Europe as — well, Leicester improving on last season here.
The hijack by the ranks of the entitled is worse than we ever imagined. It involves not just the useless giants of Milan, whose misplaced sense of entitlement is now inversely proportional to their talent, but that friend of the underdog David Gill, a man whose every move seems to benefit his club, Manchester United, and their wealthy circle of friends.
Gill was among those who worked on the logistics of the Champions League cycle that will begin in 2018-19. And you'll never guess who comes out greatly advantaged from that evaluation.
But first, Italy, the biggest winners in this new shake-up. The basics you already know. Serie A will soon have four teams, guaranteed, in the Champions League group stage, despite a quite disastrous record in the play-offs.
As of now, Italy get three teams into the tournament, except in six of the last seven seasons an Italian entrant has fallen in the preliminary elimination rounds.
Yet the rich kids of Serie A, the underachieving Milan clubs first among them, have made enough threats of a European breakaway in recent months to rattle rudderless UEFA.
So, from the season after next, half of the group stage places will be split between four countries: Spain, England and Germany — whose clubs tend to make the necessary progress through the play-offs — plus over-rated Italy.
A country that can barely merit three teams at elite level will now be entitled to one more, and no play-off required.
Yet, as with much of what UEFA do, the devil is in the details. And what details they are. On page 11 of the UEFA document announcing the new cycle, the extent of Italy's gain can be found; or, to be precise, the extent of the gain for one club: AC Milan.
That Giorgio Marchetti, UEFA's director of club competitions, should be one of the prime movers in the reorganisation of the Champions League co-efficients is no doubt purely coincidental.
Marchetti was born in Luino, north of Milan, was educated in Milan, and supports Milan. Not that he will have let that cloud his thinking when plotting this new course — or allowed Milan's enormous self-regard to skew the competition in their favour.
On one sheet is the current co-efficient ranking table, which uses the period from 2011-12 to 2015-16 and is based on current form. This shows Milan in 25th place in Europe. They have fallen behind not just the continent's aristocracy but some lesser royalty, too. Basle. Manchester City. Tottenham. Athletic Bilbao.
Underachieving AC Milan stand to be among the big winners of the new tournament format
Against this list is another table, showing the positions after the new co-efficients have been calculated, over the same period. Milan are now ninth. And what did Milan actually achieve in that five-season spell to warrant this 16-place leap? Nothing.
Domestically, Milan came second in 2011-12 and third in 2012-13 — and then collapsed. A dramatic slide down the table saw them finish eighth, 10th and seventh last season.
Their European form confirms the same downward spiral. Champions League quarter-finalists in 2011-12, defeated by Barcelona. Out to Barcelona again the following season, this time in the last 16 and beaten 4-0 at Nou Camp. And then, season 2013-14, Milan's last in Europe. A 5-1 aggregate humiliation by Atletico Madrid in the last 16, including home and away defeats. Since when, nothing.
Milan have failed to qualify for Europe in the last two seasons over which UEFA's co-efficients were calculated. They are not involved again this year, either.
They finished four points adrift of Italy's final Europa League qualifier, the mighty Sassuolo. And yet, there they are, up 16 places on the back of half a decade in the wilderness.
In one mighty act of bureaucratic skulduggery, Milan leapt over what they would regard as their inferiors, the little big clubs: Arsenal, Manchester City, Valencia, Schalke, Sevilla, Zenit St Petersburg, Porto, Napoli, Bayer Leverkusen, Basle, Manchester United, Shakhtar Donetsk, Athletic Bilbao, Tottenham and Olympiacos.
And they didn't even have to be good enough to get into Europe to do it.
Giorgio Marchetti (right), UEFA's director of club competitions supports AC Milan
How? History. Milan have succeeded in getting ancient success included in the co-efficients. They get credit for being good more than half a century ago. All clubs will under UEFA's scheme to protect the existing European order. Points are now awarded for winning European trophies, no matter when. Bigger points for recent successes, plainly, but even Milan's first European Cup win in 1963 counts.
You know those clubs who bang on about their storied history to compensate for recent failures? Now their blather is vindicated. Thanks to UEFA — and the elite cabal they placed in charge of this reimagining of fairness — what Benfica achieved when Eusebio was playing remains relevant in the modern era.
Also up 13 spots under the new co-efficient system are Liverpool — from 35th to 22nd, despite never having won the Premier League, or a European trophy since 2005. Celtic have risen 16 slots.
The big fallers? Well, that's not hard to work out, either. All those smaller clubs that have had the temerity to be successful recently, with new money. Villarreal, down 14 places; Manchester City, 11th to 16th; Paris Saint-Germain, seventh to 10th; Napoli, 17th to 20th; Atletico Madrid, down one; Athletic Bilbao, down eight.
England's representative in this grand carve-up was Gill and — surprise, surprise — Manchester United rise from 20th to 12th under the new system, despite failing to qualify for the Champions League in two of the last three seasons. How Gill is still regarded as a credible presence in football administration, heaven knows.
Now, what Benfica achieved when Eusebio was playing remains relevant in the modern era
He recommended the Football Association back the discredited Michel Platini for UEFA president — and what a delight that he will speak at UEFA's congress today, despite being banned from all football activity — and every move he makes seems to be for the financial benefit of the biggest clubs, and one in particular.
Manchester United made a pig's ear of the succession to Sir Alex Ferguson, and have reached the last eight of the Champions League once since appearing in the final in 2011.
But no matter. Along comes Gill to make it right, and ensure they stay above Manchester City in one table at least. City are 11th, United 20th in the current system. Thanks to Gill and his cohorts, United flip to 12th, City plummet to 16th.
And the chicanery does not stop there. Not only have Europe's established order carved up the seedings, they have redistributed the money like latter-day Robin Hoods — if the Merry Men had dedicated their lives to shafting the poor to put a new wing on the Sheriff of Nottingham's castle.
UEFA negotiate individually for television rights in each country. Obviously, a broadcaster in, say, Latvia cannot pay as much as one in Germany. So each country reaches a unique television deal and then the clubs from that country take a 40 per cent share of the rights. So English clubs claimed 40 per cent of the BT deal, while those from La Liga received the same cut of the contract with Atresmedia, TV3 and beIN Sports. Except football rights are at a premium in England.
So THE BT deal accounted for £1billion of UEFA's £2.4bn pot. And, with England claiming 40 per cent of that, it made the rest of Europe jealous.
So, in the new cycle of Champions League wealth distribution, the 40 per cent slice has been reduced to 15 per cent. That in itself is no bad thing. Wealth redistribution for European competition is long overdue. Far more money should go to each domestic league to keep the competition healthy.
David Gill's every move seems to benefit Manchester United and their wealthy friends
It is ridiculous that UEFA's largesse can as good as kill domestic football, as has been allowed to happen in countries such as Belarus where BATE Borisov are now close to unstoppable.
But that is not how this is going to work. The other 85 per cent is going to be returned to the market pool of competing clubs and will be split according to — you guessed it — UEFA co-efficient.
So the big winners out of the English television deal will be those clubs who have been bumped up the table by historic success, plus the existing giants of the European game — deserving causes such as Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
Having struck inferior deals for their domestic product — because their greed has made their own leagues uncompetitive — they have redressed the balance by grabbing a slice of the Premier League wedge. But it's not a renegotiation. It's a heist. A perfect crime.
The established order of Real Madrid and the top teams are also set to benefit
Just when new investment was threatening to level the field, as has happened in England, the wealthy established order have found a way of enhancing their status yet again.
They don't even have to be good at football. Just good once. In black and white. On the way to their first European Cup final win over Benfica, Milan defeated Union Luxembourg (14-0), Ipswich (4-2), Galatasaray (8-1) and Dundee (5-2). They get co-efficient points for that feat now.
So it is a raid. A smash and grab cooked up by the traditional elite and their little helpers — men like Gill and Marchetti — to keep the rich richer, leave the poor poorer, and stop any new names making a claim for what they see as theirs by right. So Leicester should enjoy the sights of Bruges tonight.
From here, it is all stacked against them in a way it simply wasn't in the Premier League last season. That's why miracles still happen in English football — and carve-ups hold sway across UEFA's Europe.
The mancityfans.net football forum
The BEST FORUM in all the land and all the world
