Why the Champions League was created

[@vecterpls]

36 teams now, but in a couple of years I'm sure they'll bump it up to at least 40 and eventually someone will actually say "Why dont we invite the saudi clubs into the competition?" Because by then they'll have spent so much money and have so many stars that it'll be more lucrative to have them in it.

[@broman1429]

​@aimanazrie8944it's already there cause it's gonna be held in USA 2025 😂😂

[@hungchoonghow5857]

Many, many European parents would want their children to be orthopaedics for football only.

[@RawFishHeader]

It's a really good point made. It being a league format where you don't have to play everyone in it means that you no longer have any constraints in bringing in more teams. It's also easy for them to just squeeze in a extra game every few years

[@masonridgewell8063]

​@@broman1429what?😮

[@TheSec09]

I am afraid this will happen.

[@M4NA5]

And starting next year, Champions League unofficially becomes the Super League, with the new format ensuring the biggest clubs have the best chance to progress through the competition.

[@mainelettuce9040]

This was the most important part of the video and it was only mentioned for a second. It won't be who is the best but who they selected as being the best. Smaller clubs be damned as they will just be used to get talent to feed the Super League clubs.

[@yt.personal.identification]

Ensuring the same clubs get priority has been a thing since they introduced the club coefficients

[@aditya.sagraha]

Tifo already did a whole video last year explaining the new format

[@mryoutube9311]

No...the super league ensured the same teams were in it every year without fear of relegation. Qualification for the Champions League in this new format hasn't changed at all, you still have to finish your domestic league in the qualifying positions

[@M4NA5]

@@mryoutube9311Yes, as far as qualification is concerned nothing changes much but you can see that with this new format teams like Roma (2017/18), Ajax (2018/19), Lyon (2019/20), Villareal (2021/22), and Milan (2022/23) can only dream of making it to the semi-final stage going forward. You can see Madrid, Barça, Man City, and Bayern as top 4 for the foreseeable future. That’s what I meant.

[@bastih.5264]

Funny to think that the creation of the Champions League format can somehow traced back to Diego Maradona. A little correction: The group stage format was introduced in 1991/92. But the name change happened a season later.

[@ezraezra2928]

In 1996, things get even worse when Bosman changed the European Football a lot. The decision to allow unlimited foreigners to be played in European competitions denied some clubs outside Spain, England, Italy, and Germany that prove the same best (even France) to become the greatness. Europa League winners outside Big 5 since 2000 like Galatasaray, CSKA Moscow, Zenit Saint Petersburg, and Shakhtar Donetsk all have a lack of Champions League best performances.

[@leeking6939]

And it's crazy if you think about it, Real Madrid has had a hand in the creation of the European Cup, the ucl and now the new format of the ucl which is just the super league

[@bastih.5264]

@@ezraezra2928 - Bosman simply wanted to get rid of the clause that clubs could still raise a transfer fee although a player's contract had already expired. By adjusting the regulations to common EU law that also brought down the foreigners restrictions.

[@batuksri]

European Cup - Only Champions can participate Champions League - Fourth? Please come in.

[@donrodgerske]

and the champions league has officially become the super league 😢

[@MrTartancam]

Fun fact: The stars on the logo represent the first eight clubs to play in the first Champions League. Those clubs being Rangers, Marseille, AC Milan (no surprise!), IFK Goteborg, Club Brugge, Porto, CSKA Moscow and PSV Eindhoven.

[@skyloh258]

No Madrid 😮

[@ayubali2431]

No Chelsea 😮

[@skyloh258]

@@ayubali2431 Chelsea is a small club wdym

[@ayubali2431]

@@skyloh258 only club in London to win the European cup and only club in the world to win all current european competitions multiple times 🤫

[@skyloh258]

@@ayubali2431 you just proved my point, ur absolutely nothing anywhere except London, you ARE a small club

[@mpj1969]

I mean at least the governing bodies are being consistent, they are ruining the wolrd cup, why not the champions league.

[@AP-o2]

He is talking about the world cup for nations, not the club world cup

[@idontexist1681]

The world cup will be fine if asian and african teams continue to achieve great results.

[@ChronicleContent]

The situation severely impacted football, as in domestic leagues, every team aspires to be at the top. This ambition gave rise to corruption, disadvantaging other teams financially. Only those who qualified for the CL received significant funding. A prime example of this is the case of Greece and Olympiakos, where the latter has been accused of influencing Greek football negatively for over two decades.

[@gartoll]

Volou is an ever better example

[@IRONDIAMOND]

I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I lost interest in Champions League a few years ago. The Europa League and Conference League are of marginally more interest due to the match-ups being more diverse. Struggle to muster any enthusiasm for an annual Man City v Leipzig game for example. That said, it's a joke that teams can be parachuted in from the upper competitions. The beauty of knockout rounds is that it should come down to the game on the day. If you're a big team and have an off day- tough luck. The absence of consequences (other than a drop in prize money for the losing team) does make it seem like there aren't as much stakes involved. Besides, smaller teams have no chance bridging the financial gap when bigger teams benefit from dropping into a lesser competition and still obtaining prize money.

[@MrRafting]

It's technically relegation and promotion. You win the conference league then you're promoted to the europa etc.

[@gonebadgerhunting]

the parachuting down to the "next" competition ends with the format change.

[@eddieherrera5314]

😅😅 so true Man City face Leipzig literally every season now

[@kakal10s]

@@gonebadgerhunting the only good thing coming from it.

[@hsthatzo8063]

Football bureaucrat bigwigs anytime Utd somehow qualify for the UCL: Galatasaray it is....

[@mrfoofoo69]

The founding and continued running of Europes biggest club competition is so similar to the energy from WG Grace in the famous cricket incident where he refused to go out and told the bowler "they didn't come to see you bowl they came to see me bat"

[@StillAwesome21]

I really don't see the upside to this, the current formar was solid and now we have this corny swiss model and it's making everything more complicated, aren't players playing enough games already?

[@ashleyw6728]

It adds 2 games a year, this is why teams have squads of 25 players rotation is important

[@dissect123]

League instead of knockout = "elite" clubs will increase their chances, underdogs essentially cannot win. -> More money for the big clubs

[@MrSmith1984]

​@@ashleyw6728 Needs to be 35-40 players per squad now.

[@ashleyw6728]

@@MrSmith1984 no it doesn't your taking that way too far

[@mightymoses18]

@@ashleyw6728​​⁠player rotation is important, but there are a handful of teams who can afford to rotate a star studded bench on and still compete domestically. It doesn’t really help the teams who can’t compete financially with player’s skyrocketing prices and whose benches are a big downgrade from their first team.

[@erikmartin4996]

Great video for those of us not steeped in football history thanks

[@he_football]

European Cup was way better. How can you call it a Champions League when it doesn't feature only champions?

[@mlondimagubane8851]

Just a cool name. It's like how the Americans call their Baseball competition the "World Series".

[@thomasjohnson2862]

It’s a misleading name, but in reality it’s harder to finish 4th in England or Spain than it is to finish 1st in say, Czech Republic or Moldova

[@danwatt5789]

@@thomasjohnson2862 You're fooling for thinking winning a league is less difficult than finishing 4th in England. Look at the points delta between first and 4th place, it's a huge gulf. Yes, of course the champions of some leagues in Europe would struggle with their current squad, but the 100M minimum payment they get just for appearing in the league would be enough to secure them competitive players going forward.

[@kase121]

@@danwatt5789 So you’d rather watch Sparta Prague than Newcastle Utd?

[@danwatt5789]

@@kase121 I'd rather that Europe's top club football tournament wasn't being deliberately gerrymandered to make the richest clubs richer and screw the rest. How does a club now aspire to do something in Europe if it cannot compete with the EPL financially? The Champions League should be a tournament for the champions of Europe only, not the guys that finished 30+ points behind them in 4th

[@SilliusSodus]

I think there should be a return to straight knock out. Would be very fun.

[@Sayalahtarkamsitarkam]

facts.... want to see obscure clubs such as Zrinjski Mostar running deep 🎉

[@jdjphotographynl]

Would be fun, but not lucrative for the ever so money hungry UEFA, so sadly that won't happen. :(

[@00dude3]

sadly no club would ever back it due to how much revenue you'd lose for making a mistake Now we get 8 games minimum and most of these bigger clubs will finished atleast the top 60% which guarantees an extra chance to progress

[@hakc97again]

I think it should return to being only for the league winners. Also bring back the Cup Winners Cup

[@Lucian86]

No...A Proper European Super League is needed. League format only, 20 big teams to compete every week with the best players in the world.

[@KateJacksonLincoln]

It's been impossible to justify calling it the Champions League for quite some time, basically since they started allowing non-champions in. The fact that the Champions of some countries have to enter in the qualifying stages, but teams that finish 3rd or 4th in another league get straight in, highlights how inappropriate the name is.

[@HarryTheGOAT-tv6eq]

European Cup was better by miles. But it's always about money look at the hypocrisy of UEFA criticising FIFA

[@Oli-Johnson]

It's just a name, it's not a big deal. The second tier of English football is called the championship but winning it doesn't make you champions of England.

[@rotex03]

I understand what you are saying. The name is wrong, but the system is (or better to say WAS) right. Forth in England/Spain and Italy (most recently Newcastle United/Rea Sociedad/AC Milan) are certainly better and more attractive to watch then champions of Bulgaria, Albania and Greece.

[@HarryTheGOAT-tv6eq]

@@rotex03 That's half the picture the half they sell to you and what you are saying is true but look at it this way- In European Cup only the champions of a nation qualified in the UCL runner ups 3rd etc can participate this devalues the National leagues bcoz before teams gave more importance to it.

[@HarryTheGOAT-tv6eq]

@@rotex03 Also one thing I don't understand about UCL Is that they set the fixtures in between the league games( I wonder why maybe due to money) just hold the whole UCL after conclusion of national leagues after giving the teams 1/2 weeks of rest. Why??( Usually the National league leaders give their all in the league and come to the UCL tired while some teams are ok with being 2nd or 3rd in the league and come to the UCL fresh than how can the fixture be fair. If you don't agree than it means people are ok with what UCL did to national leagues (devalue them). And on top of that they call it the champions league

[@lancergt1000]

But why not a double elimination bracket instead of a group stage?

[@t.w.a.i.n.]

More matches means more money, sorry the answer is not as romantic as you hope for.

[@T.E.S.S.]

once more in english?

[@blackfalcon1324]

More matches, but also a double elimination bracket means that better teams can get knocked out early. Group stages mean that a big team can still finish second and advance, while the new league phase means that they basically just have to not finish bottom third.

[@skinnyjeans1622]

​@@T.E.S.S.it's funny to see that you don't understand while others do. So in trying to instult the dude's english you're basically only showing you're the one too dumb to get it

[@sydneyloum3211]

My favourite part of this video was the not really needed tid-bit about Berlusconi's nickname being a play on "His Eminence". Thanks, as usual, for the engaging content.

[@deadlyshizzno]

Is Berlusconi really a visionary for making it even easier for big clubs to remain big? No doubt he had a good understanding of what would draw crowds (and money), but not totally convinced it was better for football overall. Big teams bowing out early due to bad performances is part of the game

[@emil2683]

It's not due to bad performances it's due to being drawn against other great teams in early rounds

[@ErinStephanie-mf2qk]

I get the attraction of top European teams wanting more regular fixtures with each other. What I don’t get, is the dogs dinner of a format, that is replacing the existing one. They could achieved what they wanted, by keeping the UCL a 32 team competition. Reversing it to four groups of eight, based on a single round robin format. Top four progress from each group. And you bring back the second group phase last used in the early 2000s, with the 16 teams split into four groups of four, playing double round robin, with top two progressing to the quarters. The quarter finals would be the only KO round based on two legs. Influenced by the format used during Covid, the semis would also be played on a neutral venue, on top of the final. 17 games played from the start of the first group phase. Same as the 1999-2003 format.

[@Pebble_Collector]

Oh. I didn't expect it to end there. This could have been a twenty minute segment I think. Thanks, Joe!

[@Flash4ML]

Same here, part way through I found myself thinking, "there's so much more behind this, I could read a whole book about this stuff." Tifo is unparalleled

[@SpaceCowboy05]

The reason why World Cup is so special is because of the 4 year waiting time. It would become boring if played every year. Same with champions league matches, making big clubs face each more frequently will be more boring and people probably forget that they're even playing. The rarity of things matters

[@miscellaneous69420]

Indeed

[@juanantoniogomezdelpulgarg2273]

By that logic let's make the ucl every 4 years, much better, every 10 years so is very special,oh even better 100 years, that will be super special

[@Mjwara]

The World Cup is the perfect example of the phrase "less is more".

[@lucaelefante5050]

Actually the new UCL format is not so as bad as it can seem. And conceptually it is not the Super League. The Super League was thought as a "classic" competition like Serie A or Premier league ecc... A Championship where all big clubs from big country of Europe face each other every week. And this system was thought to be closed like the NBA system with no relegation. The new UCL format is open (so there are no teams whose participation is locked) and is a "Swiss group". So yes you could see more frequent "big matches" in the early games of the group stages but it's a fun format... A bit more "randomical" but funny.

[@alohatigers1199]

@@lucaelefante5050 In the nba, even a small team can win by having the same salary cap to spend. That’s not the case in Europe anymore.

[@WS12658]

Beating up your opponents because they called you mafiosi is a very mafiosi thing to do.

[@mankytoes]

You've summed it up well- the main aim is to remove jeopardy for the richest clubs. Because who likes unpredictability and excitement in football!? I can't wait for things to shift even further towards making sure only a small group of teams have the opportunity to ever be competitive.

[@BriarLeaf00]

How about some cash for a litlle bunga bunga? --Benito Burlesconi.

[@SchmavidSchmobb]

As an American, I can say that no one wants another NBA. We want the parity and egalitarianism that comes from current domestic/European competition. With this format, we will never see another Leicester, and dare I say, if this format were in place 20 years ago, Man City would have never become the giant they are. It’s a classic case of the rich getting richer and it’s horrible for sport.

[@aam9216]

Hope people now understand what perez is trying to do

[@Hafris33]

Finally, everyone have a shot against PSG

[@АтанасИванов-ш9з]

There was a group stage in the last season of the European Cup, before the rebrand.

[@russmawson6744]

This video is worded in a way that implies that finishing in top 4 was enough for CL qualification from the start but it's not true. It wasn't until the late 90s that runners up could qualify and it expanded again to top 4 teams in early 2000s I think

[@calvinbaII]

Even then, once they started adding a 4th place team in a couple leagues the 4th place team still had to qualify via playoff. One year (2005? or 2006) Everton finished 4th but lost in the qualifying round.

[@rstein926]

It's just scandious how the two biggest football tournaments in the world, namely the UEFA Champions League & The FIFA World Cup are just getting 'ruined'. Both tournaments were 100% perfect with 32 teams and a simple group stage & knockout stage. The CL is going to be a huge mess from next season, especially the first round and the fact that round won't end until AFTER Christmas. The WC is just getting F around by FIFA, & not to mention the 2030 edition will be held in not one, not two but THREE continents with Uruguay, Argentina & Paraguay only getting a game each.

[@SINMAN17]

supporting underdogs in a competition is so fun man, what is that Italian on about?

[@TheEngwall]

This is done to ensure that smaller teams, like the Stockholm clubs, Malmö FF, FC Copenhagen etc don't get the chance to mess with the bigger teams ambitions. Juat look at Arsenal vs Östersund a few years ago. I bet the big wigs at UEFA pulled a BIG sigh of relief when Arsenal managed to go through by the skin of their teeth.

[@bongs_esc]

RIP 🪦 Champions League 😢 let’s enjoy the final one to the full

[@ezraezra2928]

And as another fun fact, the final of 91/92 (the last European Cup Final before the birth of Champions League) and 23/24 (the last old Champions League Final) will be played at the Wembley Stadium.

[@Sharathp]

At least we hope small clubs reach round of 16 to semis and could rewrite history.... showcasing true underdog story...now we will not see such stories.... I understand the business side but still we all love underdog story.

[@utkarshshrestha9251]

So, Berlusconi was the Perez of 80' & 90's.

[@ezraezra2928]

There are 2 big corrections here, IIRC, for this video: 1.The usage of European Cup term as an old Champions League is too disrespectful, since UEFA have 3 competitions alongside the Champions League: the UEFA Cup (modern day Europa League) and the Cup Winners Cup (replaced by the Conference League starting in 2021-22 season). The official name for the old European Cup was European Champions Clubs' Cup (Coupe des Clubs Champions Européens in French), which is now used to refer to the Champions League winning trophy. 2.The 1992/93 Champions League was NOT the first time the competitions uses the group stage format. It was introduced a season prior, with two qualifying rounds, the group stage itself with 8 teams (2 groups of 4), and the Final itself between the winners of both groups. The 1991/92 European Cup participants were Anderlecht, Barcelona, Benfica, FK Crvena Zvezda (title holders, at that time), Dynamo Kyiv, Panathinaikos, Sampdoria, Sparta Prague. Barcelona won that competitions after beating Sampdoria at Wembley. Of all 8 teams participated in the European Cup group stage, Sampdoria are still yet to play in the Champions League group stage. Their closest time they achieve this was in 2010/11, when they lost 4-5 on aggregate to Werder Bremen in playoffs. 3.The first time a Champions League was opened to those who didn't won the league was in 1997/98, although it's only limited to the runners up. The 1999/2000 season was truly the first Champion League season to have 3 and 4 teams, depending on the position of the UEFA rankings for the specific countries. At that time, the 3 countries that have 4 teams were Italy, Spain, and Germany, and this also started the rare feat when two teams from the same country can play in the penultimate stage, with Real Madrid beating Valencia 3-0 in the Final at Paris. The 1999 Champions League Final between Manchester United and Bayern Munich was the beginning of this feat, as neither sides did won the league in 97/98 season.

[@HokageUub]

So a large problem that most large clubs face is injuries which is partially due to the amount of games a team plays. What your opinion on this as a solution: 15 teams max per league (top 15). This would make the league matches more intense but fewer in total. We'd have less boring games between teams that hardly anyone supports. This would reduce th number of league games from 38 to 28 (PL, LaLiga etc) while increasing the number of teams and therefore games in the championship and 2nd tiers of each league to much more. This would ensure that the team who moves up to the top tier would be absolutely prepared due to more football being played and more experience for the players. Next I'd recommend getting rid of any 3rd league competition like the carabao and have strictly only 2 cups (league and Fa for PL). The secondary competition should be expanded to every division in the entire country (all the way down to nationals) with the winner being awarded a spot in the champions league next season. This would encourage teams to perform better in the competition should they not be able to perform in the league. Top 3 would be awarded CL in the league and the winner of the cup. If the same team wins the cup and finishes top 3, the 4th place would enter CL too.

[@chrisr1415]

A genuinely fascinating little video

[@barrypegg3070]

The new format does work neatly with just 36 teams. If you split teams into 4 bands, each team 2 teams from each band giving you 8 matches. But each band has 9 teams which does not divide by 2. So when you do the draw for teams in the same band you have to bring in another team from another band. So, expect the next change to be increasing from 36 to 40 to make this simple. Then with 40 teams you could have 5 bands and 10 matches. Then finally I can see automatic qualification for Champions League to being scrapped, other than for previous seasons winners. Each country will get a certain number of european spots and the teams EUFA co-efficient determining the actual competition they go into. Again they might put a "fudge" in place so a team winning their domestic league might gets a booster EUFA co-efficient to help them qualify for Champions League for at least the next season. With this you get a competition where the historical "top" teams qualify consistently for.

[@davidpt]

They ruined the Champions League, it's not even about Champions anymore

[@arishnak]

I might be wrong, but when you mention Butrageño, you showed Hugo Sanchez.

[@HarryWessex]

So... they hate when smaller sides do well... which is exactly what makes cups good...

[@karlhowsham200]

for those old enough to remember the original format of the champions league was the best of both worlds 2 x knockout rounds and a smaller group stage a prelim round could be added as it is now

[@AlLuiPigus]

4:50 - The change that allowed finishing in the top 4 ans would get you in the Champions League was not sudden at all! The first time when 4 clubs from the same league were allowed to all participate in the Champions League was the 98/99 season for the top leagues of Spain, Italy and Germany.

[@vassilisxerikos3908]

Since ‘97-‘98 the CL became predictable exactly because if this trend. It is hard to be excited for the new season when you know UEFA will Pamper the same 4-5 big clubs (RM, Man City, Bayern, inter etc) until quarter finals.

[@hugoumero9723]

they should doing an group stage but with champions and league path with 32 teams

[@multifaceteduser3405]

i get where he was coming from but one of the attractions to the FA cup is seeing smaller clubs beat the bigger clubs

[@tirnanogful]

Please cover the late 90 80is game at Windsor park I was a kid. Linfield D Celtic. Riot. Great vids mate

[@ashleyw6728]

I'm looking forward to tbis change

[@AnonNomad]

Modern football is so naff.

[@danwatt5789]

Why was the Champions League created? *Cash register opening sounds*

[@AM2K2]

UEFA saved football by stopping the Super League btw 💀

[@T.E.S.S.]

Silvio at it again

[@Eesa8]

Everyone was complaining about the super league and now we have a supee peague

[@scottmcnaughton539]

I knock out, no second chances, Champions League would be elite. You could still keep as many teams as there are now, but imagine the upsets. Would be great for the game but not for the bottom line of under performing elites.

[@nicancelin3714]

Bring back knockout

[@EmpressTouch]

Nothing wrong with offering 30 clubs a guaranteed 4 Group Phase fixtures (2 home, 2 away, 1 bye-week). Simply tighten the too generous safety net.

[@j.marios.montano6105]

I suppose you already know this, but that silhouette you used is not Butragueño, it's Hugo Sanchez 😅

[@yaciinho]

The reason why we love the champions league because it’s so unpredictable, small teams can pull shockers and make the competition more interesting, now when you eliminate this element it becomes just derbies and clasicos

[@dpmu1977]

Nope - it's won by the massive clubs 99% of the time. Porto was the last minnow that won and that was because the linesman made an error in the round of 16.

[@yaciinho]

@@dpmu1977 I’m not talking about winning titles, I’m talking about like Ajax in 2019 or Villareal in 2022, they didn’t win but they performed super well and pulled upsets

[@mvdlele29]

@@yaciinho is not good if we start thinking about ajax as small club..what to say about steaua or other east european teams

[@yaciinho]

@@mvdlele29 they’re not small but they certainly don’t stand a chance every time they play ucl

[@jimbo5_7]

The CL has become an ever more carefully managed procession for the clubs with the biggest budgets. The loss of knock out football and the jeopardy it brought has been a sad demise of a once great tournament, probably most felt by the older football fan. Newer football fans

[@kristofgaborbakai8385]

The fact that it's called Champions league is really ironic, since more teams are non-champions, then champions

[@v.demonaco3718]

Short answer: money

[@ShaniAce]

4:54 That's not accurate. The rule that allowed the top four teams in the major European football leagues to qualify for the UEFA Champions League was introduced in the 1997-1998 season. Before that it was mostly the champion (and maybe second best) of each league.

[@sos.gamers]

Now we need a Copa Libertadores of America video adn the biggest club torunament Intercontinental Cup

[@NanobanaKinako]

Well, it's called Champions "LEAGUE" right? Why don't we make it a literal league? - UEFA 🗿

[@glennBMFV]

It should be called the European league instead

[@abhijotsingh7079]

Good job

[@NIDELLANEUM]

People here making comments like "save you a click, it's because of money" are a bit strange. I mean, EVERYTHING in football exists because of money, what type of reaction are we supposed to have?

[@PirateDrive]

*Seymour Skinner 'the finger thing means the taxes' .GIF*

[@hungchoonghow5857]

And now Italian football is in the dumps. What an ironic twist of events...

[@ezraezra2928]

The Calciopoli in 2006 was the main reason they have a little success in European Football, with Inter Milan's 2010 historic Treble being the last occasions an Italian clubs had won the Champions League, although Roma won the Conference League in 2021/22 and there were 3 Serie A clubs playing in 3 European Finals the last season.

[@worlddd7777]

As a Red Star fan, im so glad we took title in 1991, after that, make all Super Leagues all u want

[@splashbenine]

All these people care about money, not passion

[@EmpressTouch]

We need a protest-song.

[@theflaneur__]

He ruined football and pure sporting integrity. He's a disgrace.

[@GustavoCaucayo]

I get the "innovation" it took to make teams more profitable, But going just for the business angle for this video just makes me feel like the passion and sport of futbol is second, And money is first.. A sad reminder of where we are as a global society

[@juanantoniogomezdelpulgarg2273]

why do you find this as "passion is over" why every proposed change on football you find it as " passion is over"

[@robert2690]

Welcome to capitalism

[@spacewiz]

It has become a joke. No point in watching anymore because the same 6 teams will get through every year.

[@marcpearce9121]

Surely the jeopardy of cup competitions IS the spectacle though?

[@EmpressTouch]

The safety net is too generous.

[@backtopurrrfectagain6681]

This is what I was surprised when playing football manager 2023.😅 Ah yes, along with the next world cup, is also have significant new regulations. (If I'm not wrong) 10 or 12 groups, filled with three countries.

[@zagreus101]

Ooh, is the answer for the new format money and power being funnelled into the top teams and UEFA?

[@duran9664]

🤨🤨🤨 Wait a minute 🤨🤨🤨 u didn’t explain how the 2025 new league format of the CL would work amidst too many other tournaments throughout the year🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨

[@theUnicornOfPower]

For me, an underdog causing an upset to a great team is what football is all about. That's why I don't understand this route. Especially as I don't have favorite players anymore these days, so I won't be sorry if I don't get to watch any of them in the competition anymore.

[@VillaVelasco89]

So they basically punished smaller clubs and made it easier for bigger clubs because Maradona had a god-given right to go far in the competition rather than earning it fairly? What a joke. This league format will make it even worse for smaller clubs to get far into the competition. It's a re-tooled Super League, and I really hope fans start speaking out against it

[@juanantoniogomezdelpulgarg2273]

So by your logic premier league should dissapear and fa cup should be the biggest competition in england so that we can see some underdogs

[@user-uf6zt1eh5i]

So burlesconi was the florentino perez of his time

[@Schnacks]

I'll TL;DR this 5:35 for everybody: Money

[@NIDELLANEUM]

I mean, that's the reason for EVERYTHING football related

[@DunDun-e43]

I get all that, but what about the 35th team and 36th team, how are they decided if as normal they are top of the domestic league then whi get those spots?

[@PossibleJothamChin]

It’s basically the name tho, champions LEAGUE, not the champions cup.

[@Reem.Ersheid]

Please expand more

[@thomasjohnson2862]

If you had a European competition with the actual top 32 teams in Europe, what would it look like? I think you’d probably have roughly about 7-8 Premier League teams, 6 teams from Spain, Italy and Germany, and the rest from France, the Netherlands and Portugal.

[@chrisport57]

Thats just your opinion. If you look at the 5 year rankings then clubs like Shaktar, Brugge and Rangers would be ranked in the top 32

[@thomasjohnson2862]

@@chrisport57 Those rankings aren’t entirely reflective of the top 32 teams. The top leagues are competitive which means not everyone can play in Europe or the Champions League every year, whereas the teams you mention win the league the vast majority of the time. Shakhtar we’re definitely one of Europe’s top 32 teams especially before the start of the war in 2014 and its escalation in 2022 though

[@Yon_Jon5715]

"European Television League", sounds slightly better than the "In-Season Tournament" of the NBA. Just call them "Money Making Endeavor" already!

[@robert2690]

What if you convert the premier league into a domestic version of the champions league where you have regional champions qualifying for the premier league?

[@miseconor8104]

Surprise surprise! Football run in the interest of the historic elite.

[@ronbonora7872]

Money!

[@crashglassbar5879]

THE MONEY

[@Snookbone]

Money. Saved you five and a half minutes

[@PayneysComics]

I'd rather go back to knock outs from round one. "It's the magic of the cup" but for Europe

[@dmore]

Alternative Title: The Day Greed Took Over Football

[@nicholasperry4730]

Better be making a video about bobby charlton

[@will-bp9gz]

Football isn't a sport anymore, it's a business. The Football we knew and loved growing up has long gone.

[@r.o.b8728]

it's always been a business

[@will-bp9gz]

Not before the 90s

[@r.o.b8728]

@@will-bp9gz Explain

[@will-bp9gz]

@@r.o.b8728 when paid T.V bcame more popular in the 90s. More money came into the game with advertising and sponsors. Therefore more money could be made.

[@r.o.b8728]

@@will-bp9gz if football wasn't a business back then they would have never agreed to let sky sports own the tv rights to the prem since if it wasn't a business they would base their decisions on what would be best for the fans and the game rather than money also if football only became a business in the 80s then explain silvio berlusconi's ac millan in the 80s and why fifa choose to host the world cup in dictatorships all the way back in 1934

[@wilstewart5743]

We should do away with financial FairPlay rules which fossilise the position of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus. If they want competition guarantees, then owners of smaller clubs should be able to DESTROY the positions of those 3. I could imagine wealthy clubs in smaller leagues emerging then

[@NIDELLANEUM]

One thing I "miss" from back in the day is that, once a team was knocked out, their European season was *OVER* No relegation to other competitions, no chance to take part in another preliminary round. Even if you were knocked out at the beginning of the season, congratulations, your European season is over, try to qualify for next year's now. I'm glad that the new format will indeed bring that back

[@settheory2219]

It won't. It will only be from the group stage onward

[@jorgehoek8486]

European Cup/Champions League all time stats leaders Madrid who cheats most time and Bayern Munich who is the most consistent then comes Barca, Milan & Liverpool

[@5amH45lam]

I wond€r wh¥ th£ Champion$ L€agu£ wa$ ¢r€at£d?

[@moze2324]

Now the champions league is the super league