22-04-2021, 11:46
I hope they, or someone else, does come up with another scheme. As you wisely remarked Matt there are no good guys in this drama. You'd worry about a second-hand car if you got it from FIFA or UEFA, if you got it from the FA you'd be slightly concerned that the mechanic checking it over was on day-release from an old folk's home, and if you'd used the Premier League the mileage would be way out and there be a funny smell of drugs from the boot.
The Champions League is currently ridiculous - you don't need to be champions of anything to be in it and the Europa is so etiolated it spreads itself meaninglessly across the season like cheap marg' on a slice of Kingsmill. The two competitions wind like intarsia through an impenetrable series of international matches and competitions between countries to whom the games mean little to even their most enthusiastic fans. They exist to serve the vanity of the organising bodies.
Interestingly in the world outside football the rich men in charge can be swayed into chic minimalism. They don't expect their trophy wives to be shopping in the modern equivalent of Woolworths. They're getting personal service, one-offs, originals presented to them on a silver tray, untouched by any human hand other than that of the craftsman involved. Yet they come to football with a philosophy that more is more. More money, more wages, more games, more sackings, more attention, more heaped upon more in such a wriggling mass of excess that only occasionally do we get to glimpse the outstanding.
If you aren't champions of anything, have never ever been champions of Europe and are halfway way up the English league, you shouldn't even be waiting outside the door that says SUPER. SIMPLES!
For a start let's have champions competing against champions, so that we have a team we can revere as Champions of Europe - hey we could even call it that.
And then maybe two clubs from every European country could be invited to compete in the Eurosilver Trophy. One the Cup winner, the other league runner up maybe. Early round/rounds would be confined to countries whose leagues are lower-ranked, then when you get down to maybe 64 you have a straight knockout tournament, with an exciting draw between rounds.
Maybe as a side line we could run a kinda Euroitsaknockout, in which rich owners of football clubs and Chief Execs can demonstrate a range of sporting skills in an assortment of embarrassing costumes.
The Champions League is currently ridiculous - you don't need to be champions of anything to be in it and the Europa is so etiolated it spreads itself meaninglessly across the season like cheap marg' on a slice of Kingsmill. The two competitions wind like intarsia through an impenetrable series of international matches and competitions between countries to whom the games mean little to even their most enthusiastic fans. They exist to serve the vanity of the organising bodies.
Interestingly in the world outside football the rich men in charge can be swayed into chic minimalism. They don't expect their trophy wives to be shopping in the modern equivalent of Woolworths. They're getting personal service, one-offs, originals presented to them on a silver tray, untouched by any human hand other than that of the craftsman involved. Yet they come to football with a philosophy that more is more. More money, more wages, more games, more sackings, more attention, more heaped upon more in such a wriggling mass of excess that only occasionally do we get to glimpse the outstanding.
If you aren't champions of anything, have never ever been champions of Europe and are halfway way up the English league, you shouldn't even be waiting outside the door that says SUPER. SIMPLES!
For a start let's have champions competing against champions, so that we have a team we can revere as Champions of Europe - hey we could even call it that.
And then maybe two clubs from every European country could be invited to compete in the Eurosilver Trophy. One the Cup winner, the other league runner up maybe. Early round/rounds would be confined to countries whose leagues are lower-ranked, then when you get down to maybe 64 you have a straight knockout tournament, with an exciting draw between rounds.
Maybe as a side line we could run a kinda Euroitsaknockout, in which rich owners of football clubs and Chief Execs can demonstrate a range of sporting skills in an assortment of embarrassing costumes.