Before the knockout stage games began a few weeks back, we hadn’t witnessed a Champions League match since the final day of group play in mid-December, over two months ago. The average team will have played roughly 12-15 games in that time span in their respective domestic league and cup(s). This doesn’t include the three-week gap between first and second legs (they give us a taste of the knockout rounds and now we are just sitting here wondering what to do with our Tuesday/Wednesday afternoons). There are pros and cons to the long delay and to the Champions League competition as a whole, but this made me wonder - are we utilizing the most effective schedule and structure to crown Europe’s champion?
Current “Issues”
Increasingly Difficult to Succeed from a Smaller Country
This was the first season in history that every team that advanced to the knockout stages were from one of Europe’s main 5 leagues (4 from England & Spain, 3 from Italy & Germany, & 2 from France). Meanwhile, Ajax, who were just minutes away from reaching last year’s Champions League Final, had to play four extra games simply to qualify for the group stage. Ajax are essentially punished with extra games simply for playing in an inferior league despite incredible success in last year’s tournament.
Ajax’s run was also impossible to predict - teams outside the top 5 leagues just don’t make it that far in competitions - plain and simple. They’ve also paid the price for their success as many players have been sold to bigger clubs.
Qualifying Process
This ties into my point above - with teams from the “big 5” leagues increasingly dominating the Champions League, you ponder whether or not the competition is truly a reflection of the world’s best teams. Teams from smaller leagues have to play more games just to qualify, but it’s hard to question the fairness of that system. We know Liverpool are one of the best teams in the world but we have no idea if the champion of Bulgaria can hang with the most elite teams in the world, so they should have to do more to prove it.
Irregular Schedule
There are teams that start their qualification process as early as July, and the competition’s final usually happens in late May or early June. This is a huge time range where games are split throughout the season. Some leagues give more leeway than others when it comes to scheduling and adjusting to ensure their teams are as close to 100% as possible for Champions League matches.
What should We Do?
While these problems shouldn’t be ignored, it’s hard to imagine implementing a new process that fixes every issue mentioned above. The qualifying process gives a team from every European country the chance to win the Champions League - the fact that teams from elite leagues are dominating the competition is more of a financial issue rather than the competition. Isolating more prestigious leagues from mid/low-tier leagues is only going to worsen the parity that much more.
I compare this system to the NCAA March Madness tournament - bigger leagues (conferences) receive more entries, but the competition still allows for a Cinderella run like Ajax last year or Monaco in 2017. I don’t believe the format needs any fixing, but domestic leagues could accommodate better for the extra games.
Author: Living in Southern California, Robert Sweeney has been a fan of soccer since he played as a young child. Since then, he’s become a diehard Tottenham and US National Team fan. Rob enjoys writing about the impact soccer has had on his life in hopes that it betters others as well. Twitter: @robsweeney11