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UEFA chief wants to 'protect' Leicester City's Champions League dream

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Posted

UEFA chief wants to 'protect' Leicester City's Champions League dream

Teams like Leicester City should be ‘protected’ in European competition, the president of UEFA has said.

Aleksander Ceferin believes sides that have reached the latter stages of the Champions League should get a pass for the following campaign as a reward and to help sides like City, who reached the quarter finals in 2017 but haven’t qualified since, as well as the likes of Ajax to continue to grow at European level.

UEFA is currently drawing up proposals for changes to European competitions and Ceferin believes his proposal, which is one of a number being considered, including a change to group stages with eight teams per group, will aid the emergence of some clubs.

 

“We would like to protect teams like Ajax this year, or Monaco and Leicester City before,” he told the Times.

“Ajax played the semi-finals this year and now they will have to sell all their players because they don’t know if they will qualify for the Champions League next year.

“I don’t think we should protect too many clubs, because then it’s too closed, but I think we have to protect some clubs.

“One idea is that those clubs who succeed at a certain stage of the competition can compete the following year too. But it is a discussion only. We have a meeting on September 11 to debate it with leagues and clubs.”

 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/uefa-chief-wants-protect-leicester-3056694.amp

Posted

The whole point of European Club Tournaments is it is the best teams each year rewarded, you either get your domestic spots through position or cups or you win it. We ultimately lost in the quarter finals (even if Atletico fvcked us over again) and finished lower table in the League. We didn't deserve it again and the whole experience was so special because of our amazing achievements the year before.

 

I'd much rather us go without because it means if we were to get it again, we would've earned it and had another story to tell from our current Golden Era.

Posted

Teams who reach last four could earn qualification for following season
Sebastián Fest
July 4 2019, 9:00am, 
The Times

Champions League

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Aleksander Ceferin, the Uefa president, has revealed that the idea of “protecting” teams who reach the latter stages of the Champions League by ensuring they qualify for the following season’s tournament is among the reforms being considered for the competition.

Ceferin, speaking in an interview at Uefa’s headquarters in Nyon, also disclosed that Uefa is in advanced talks with the South Americans for a “champion of champions” match next year between the winner of Euro 2020 and the winner of the Copa America.

Uefa is consulting on reforms of the Champions League, its elite club competition, and the Slovenian lawyer said one of the proposals was to ensure qualification for those clubs such as Ajax who reached the semi-finals but have no guarantee of playing in the group stage next season.

There are other proposals too — the most controversial one being put forward by the European Clubs’ Association is to change the tournament to four groups of eight teams. The Times revealed last month that another proposal is to expand the Champions League from 32 clubs to 40 or 48, in groups of five or six instead of four teams.

It has even been suggested that all semi-finalists should qualify for the following season.

Ceferin said: “We would like to protect teams like Ajax this year, or Monaco and Leicester City before. Ajax played the semi-finals this year and now they will have to sell all their players because they don’t know if they will qualify for the Champions League next year.

“I don’t think we should protect too many clubs, because then it’s too closed, but I think we have to protect some clubs. One idea is that those clubs who succeed at a certain stage of the competition can compete the following year too. But it is a discussion only. We have a meeting on September 11 to debate it with leagues and clubs.”

He also ruled out any possibility of a Super League just involving the top European clubs, saying: “A Super League will never happen while I’m here.”

In relation to the “champion of champions” competition talks with Conmebol, the South American confederation, Ceferin was adamant that Uefa did not need Fifa’s agreement for it to take place.

“We absolutely don’t need any Fifa permission. Why would we need permission for a competition?”, said Ceferin. “This is a decision for the two confederations. Because we are not members of Fifa, we are independent. We are partners, not subordinates”.

Ceferin defended Uefa’s decision to stage the Europa League final in May in Azerbaijan, which came in for much criticism after two English clubs, Arsenal and Chelsea, made it to the final. He said the complaints from England had not gone down well in the rest of Europe.

“We are the governing body of European football and have to develop it everywhere, not just in the big countries,” he added. ”We don’t wait for the last two weeks to decide the finals when we see there are, for example, two English teams.

“Arsenal complained [the most]. That was probably because of the fans. They just complained. There is no alternative, even if they offer something. Every single part of Europe is far for someone. You go with the Europa League [final] to the other parts of Europe to develop football.

“These situations are not received well . . . It’s always good to be productive and respectful. But the FA, I must say that, they now have a very good leadership. Very respectful, they travel around, they try to help the smaller countries.”

Ceferin and the Fifa president Gianni Infantino have been at loggerheads over several issues including a new Club World Cup, a global Nations League, and Fifa’s secretary-general Fatma Samoura being sent to oversee the crisis-hit African football confederation. Ceferin insisted however he has no desire to become Fifa president himself in the future.

“No, Fifa no,” he said. “At Uefa, I don’t know. We have term limits anyway. But you never know, because if you had told me five years ago that I would be Uefa president I would have laughed. You never know what life will bring. I have until 2023 and I have to decide what to do. Right now, I’m enjoying myself, this is a football organisation, not a political organisation.”

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/teams-who-reach-last-four-could-earn-qualification-for-following-season-vk76ltlnj

Posted

So under his idea let’s just say Chelsea, Spurs, Man City and Liverpool make the semi finals of the Champions League.

That dame season the top 4 in the PL is Arsenal, Man Utd, Leicester and Wolves... unlikely but in that scenario do we have 8 PL teams in the Champions League? Or do the top 4, including Leicester City as Champions miss out on Europe the following season?

Heres an idea.... leave it the fook alone! Stop messing with football for your own financial gain!

Do not pretend this is about Leicester or Ajax losing players- those players all go regardless of CL qualifying.

This is about ensuring big money and sponsorship teams who may fall back down the pecking under qualifying regardless of league position.

Manchester United and Ac Milan are not qualifying? How can we keep the big teams there...

Posted
20 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

Just **** off and stop changing shit for the sakes of it. more and more f**king money, you greedy c**ts.

 

 

Fixed.

Posted

Or reward more competitive leagues with a greater amount of places?

 

There is certainly an argument for 5 CL places and 3 EL spots per season for the Prem. I wouldn’t support this at the expense of say the SPL only getting one place but I’m sure somebody else can tell me how this is currently worked out....?

Posted
1 hour ago, Swan Lesta said:

Or reward more competitive leagues with a greater amount of places?

 

There is certainly an argument for 5 CL places and 3 EL spots per season for the Prem. I wouldn’t support this at the expense of say the SPL only getting one place but I’m sure somebody else can tell me how this is currently worked out....?

Not an argument that would persuade me.

Posted
1 hour ago, Swan Lesta said:

Or reward more competitive leagues with a greater amount of places?

 

There is certainly an argument for 5 CL places and 3 EL spots per season for the Prem. I wouldn’t support this at the expense of say the SPL only getting one place but I’m sure somebody else can tell me how this is currently worked out....?

Well SPL only get one spot at the moment and that’s just the qualifiers. 

 

Ajax despite winning the Dutch league have to qualify 

Posted

There should be less automatic spots for Champions League, and more qualifiers. For example, 2 automatic CL spots in each "Top 4" league, with 4 qualifier spots, and have Europa as a sort of "second chance" for teams that don't win CL qualification. This would be my preferred option, as it would give scope to more "poorer" teams to at least have a greater oppurtunity to make CL.

Posted

How many times has a team reaching the semi-finals not been involved the next season?

 

We had our time, great fun it was too, but no way did we deserve another go the next year. Le't get back there on merit.

Posted

And of course when we say we want to protect sides like Leicester City, we absolutely do not mean Leicester City. We mean Ajax, who notoriously struggle to qualify for the Champions League.

Posted
19 hours ago, Cardiff_Fox said:

Well SPL only get one spot at the moment and that’s just the qualifiers. 

 

Ajax despite winning the Dutch league have to qualify 

lollol why do any champions have to qualify and third place teams don't? 

 

So the European Cup was only champions and the previous winner. 

But raffle tickets for the champions league are on sale at uefa hq lollollol

Posted

I'd rather see more "champions" actually being allowed to qualify. Certain countries may not have the standard now but over time in the competition; they'll improve and attract more players. Europe should be earned on merit and boy did we earn it that season!

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