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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.

Not sure what to think of it yet. It would further devalue the meaning of Champions League but at the same time it would bring better balance to the football community. Give smaller teams a chance to build.

I think it could make it better in the longer perspective though. Would give clubs like Villa and Everton something to build on now and then. They've both been close to break away from midtable inconsistency in recent years but the top clubs in Premier League are just too tough to take on. Clubs who don't budget for CL football can only build up to a certain point. After that there's a huge gap in terms of wages that you just can't make up for.

We can forget any lingering hopes of title challenges in the years to come if this happens. The 'prize' will be to finish in 6th place.

interesting idea - makes sense in many ways. i wonder how they'd structure it, though. 16 groups of 4? the groupstages would be incredibly boring - they're already boring now.

If they fill it with 2nd rate Eastern European clubs, it'll be shite until the final stages anyway.

Making things cleaner and a bit more symmetrical is fair enough, but the competition should be structured in two divisions.

Giants already crush the minnows with the number of clubs we have. Introducing weaker clubs isn't going to make things more competitive.

Not in the short run, no, but it would give them something to build on. It will depend on how the money is distributed mainly, but I assume that's why they're considering scrapping the Europa League to begin with. It would make a ton of difference if Everton could earn thirty million extra across two seasons and then invest it wisely. Or this current Newcastle side, with a clever transfer policy, a clear club philosophy and an extensive scouting system already in place. Give them the chance to bulk up for a couple of years without having to knock Chelsea or Arsenal out of the top four first and they might amass to something. It might put a limit to how big clubs are hoarding good players too, since there will be more opportunities for the players to prove themselves on the European stage all of a sudden.

If you create two divisions you're just going to repeat the Uefa cup/Europa League mistake, and as a consequence no one will give a toss until the top teams clash.

In the interests of fairness, this would be a good idea.

As Klaus said, the revenue generated could make a massive difference to most teams and increase the level of competition across football as a whole. With 64 clubs, the games won't be dull for the majority of fans involved, television deals will be easy to come by. The only fans who'll suffer will be the ones belong to more established CL clubs but I'm not a fan of that kind of elitism anyway.

Maybe the 'bigger' clubs can join in the league after the group stages?

Liverpool still won't qualify. 😆

It hasn't been a true Champions league for 2 decades now. They should just rename it the Europa league and expand it as Platini says.

Agree with everything Klaus says. Last Thursday I wrote a long post about how predictable the Champions League is. It, more athan anything else, has helped concentrate wealth in the hands of 5 or 6 clubs. Now, there will be a slightly bigger pool of teams that can develop th capacity to compete domestically and in Europe.

If it's going to 64 teams, then it should be set up as a knock-out tournament IMO.

SimplyThePest wrote:

If it's going to 64 teams, then it should be set up as a knock-out tournament IMO.

The big clubs would never allow that. The league format is all about guaranteeing tv and match day revenue, as well as providing exposure for the shirt sponsor.

Claudius wrote:

It hasn't been a true Champions league for 2 decades now. They should just rename it the Europa league and expand it as Platini says.

Agree with everything Klaus says. Last Thursday I wrote a long post about how predictable the Champions League is. It, more athan anything else, has helped concentrate wealth in the hands of 5 or 6 clubs. Now, there will be a slightly bigger pool of teams that can develop th capacity to compete domestically and in Europe.

It's not any more predictable than the old format where teams won the CL back to back on several occasions. Since the change no one has held on to the CL over successive seasons. At this point, if it was restricted to the top teams from each country, you'd just have United, Barcelona and Milan in with the reasonable chance of winning.

Platini is a cunt.
I hope he eats shit and dies.

😆

Perhaps I should avoid this one like I avoid all the Messi/Barcelona adoring threads, as my blind hatred makes me incapable of any constructive comment.

Who is the worst then Gus between Wenger and Platini? 🙂

Wenger might be a cunt- But he's OUR cunt Rex.

Klaus wrote:

Not in the short run, no, but it would give them something to build on. It will depend on how the money is distributed mainly, but I assume that's why they're considering scrapping the Europa League to begin with. It would make a ton of difference if Everton could earn thirty million extra across two seasons and then invest it wisely. Or this current Newcastle side, with a clever transfer policy, a clear club philosophy and an extensive scouting system already in place. Give them the chance to bulk up for a couple of years without having to knock Chelsea or Arsenal out of the top four first and they might amass to something. It might put a limit to how big clubs are hoarding good players too, since there will be more opportunities for the players to prove themselves on the European stage all of a sudden.

If you create two divisions you're just going to repeat the Uefa cup/Europa League mistake, and as a consequence no one will give a toss until the top teams clash.

Two divisions then, but with the same prize/progression money for the second as for the first. It'd be a light version of the usual draft + financial assistance model pursued by some other sports.

If first, second third went to the upper tier and fourth, fifth, sixth went to the lower tier, the only real distortion would be occasionally teams seeking to drop from third to fourth at the end of the season.

But I don't think that'd be a huge issue. The CL prize money, though obviously a chunk of a big club's financial position, doesn't have a definitive influence on it. It would clarify the CL vs Europa bragging rights that fans already take up as well.

A good idea in principle, but a lot depends on it's execution.

It could help encourage those to invest in infrastructure if there is more chance of financial return when finishing 5th or 6th compared to now.