Champions League at two different speeds
I'm sorry for the clickbait title, but I couldn't describe it better than that. European football is actually dead. What do I mean with that? Well, Champions League and Europa League are dominated by the top teams of 5 countries. Spain, England, Germany, France and Italy. That has been like that for years, and that is kind of normal as they are the biggest countries of Europa (except for Russia and Ukraine).
But in the past it was possible for Clubs outside of that top 5 to compete and even take a title every now and then. Like AJAX Amsterdam, FC Porto, Celtic, Feyenoord, Anderlecht,... even Aberdeen took a European Cup in the eighties.
But nowadays, the biggest countries with the biggest TV budgets have completely hijacked the European leagues. By demanding more and more starting rights for their top teams and leaving the smaller countries a harder and harder qualifying track, they have made their own clubs even stronger and the other countries weaker. Why? Because even more TV money is coming their way, and less is going to the other countries. Which gives the Barcelonas, PSG's, Liverpools and Bayern Munichs of this world more power to attract the best players from the other leagues, which again makes them weaker, and so on. This gives the Champions League less attraction from me, a true football supporter. Because there is no fun in watching Club Brugge lose 0-5 against PSG that even didn't have to push, or Tottenham whiping the floor with FK Crvena Zvezda, also 5-0. The game is one of two speeds, normal clubs and super clubs, where it is almost impossible to see a win from a smaller country against one of the "Big Five". Last year Ajax was the great exception, but that was really extraordinary.
European Super League
These top clubs are now talking about forming a big European Super League where all these big clubs would form a league with each other and they would leave their domestic league.
Well, that would completely kill it for me. The only solution to make things more interesting for everyone is allowing only champions of domestic leagues into the Champions League. And the Europa League should not contain more than 3 clubs from one country, big or not. That would eventually even the path again. And make the smaller ones bigger again, and the bigger ones smaller. Because that is the true strength of a competition. The difference between the last and the first in the league defines the strength. The smaller that is, the tougher the league.
In the current Access List, 4 clubs from Spain, England, Germany and Italy automatically are qualified for the group stage of the Champions League and 2 for the group stage of the Europa League
It will stay a dream
What I am suggesting is sadly impossible, as these huge clubs with massive power will never allow such thing to happen. To the contrary, they will try everything to exclude the small clubs. And it will eventually kill the big ones. Because, after a while, there will also be a top and and bottom in that Super League, and there the bigger ones will suddenly use their power to keep the bottom at the bottom. So the top will get smaller and smaller and at some point nobody will be interested anymore in just another Real Madrid - Manchester City for the sixth time in a row...
Underdogs are never bad, in my opinion, if in a game both teams have a chance to win, it is interesting, otherwise no one cares, as the result is known up front. And people just like surprise winners and underdogs...
So for me, right now European football is dead, as it is not European anymore, it should be called Elite European football.
Sincerely,
Pele23