I’m fed up with the UEFA Champions League round-robins. What is Michel Platini waiting to go back to the old European Club Champions Cup system which was based on a knock-out system right from the start. That ensured real matches and not the number of dull games we see in the current system where neither team has enough to lose or to win to make for an exciting game! Of course, to avoid a Barca-Arsenal – as an example – in the 1/64 finals, there needs to be a seeding system based on the strength of the national championships so as to avoid early on clashes. But true to the underdog spirit of this blog, there have and will always be major surprises that make football such an uncertain sport.
Everything is done right now to put currency over legacy (I am borrowing this expression by the way from Gary Vaynerchuk’s book Crush It! which I really enjoyed and led me to finally start this blog, thanks Gary!). That won’t fly long-term believe me and it will one day lead to nearly empty stadiums. Platini is taking some of the right steps to avoid cash ruling everything by for example ensuring that the champions of so-called second zone countries do get a change to even participate in the round-robin first stage of the Champions League. Michel, go further than this and get rid of the round-robin!