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THERE are no boundaries to UEFA’s greed, but more doesn’t mean better as far as this Champions League format is concerned.
The only sense of jeopardy in five months of football came in the last round of fixtures, that’s not exciting.
It has been dull and boring.
It’s been like watching Coronation Street or Eastenders. Every Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, it’s all been much of the same.
The bean-counters will be happy of course. Liverpool have banked another £82,7 million in prize money, Arsenal another £74,4 million.
The businessmen that run the clubs will be delighted because their number one priority is always the bottom line. For them, money always trumps quality.
But this UEFA fuelled greed is self-defeating.
The new Champions League format has been dull and boring because of UEFA’s greed.
There’s been a 50 percent increase on last year’s number of games – we should be lessening the burden on our teams.
The greatest spectacle in the world, the Premier League, has suffered as a result of the format.
By the time the league phase ended, 144 matches had taken place as opposed to 96 played 12 months ago. That’s a 50 percent increase on last year’s number of games.
We should be lessening the burden on our teams.
This is way too much football and consequently the quality of it is getting lower. Not just in the European competitions, the danger is it has spilled into our domestic league.
The greatest league in the world, the Premier League, has suffered too. Already, there are signs it isn’t the spectacle we thought we were getting. Protecting our own domestic league should be our priority, not endless amounts of meaningless games, even though financial rewards are enormous.
The common complaint in recent seasons is our players play too many games, that they have too many injuries. The tiredness has been evident in these games and the public will soon be turned off by it.
The essence of the Champions League was always built on the excitement of knock-out football. As a player, you knew one bad moment could cost you the game.
At Liverpool, in my seven seasons there were four years where we didn’t win it.
We were deservedly beaten by Dinamo Tbilisi and Nottingham Forest, but we also got knocked out by Widzew Lodz in 1983 and to CSKA Sofia in 1982. The Bulgarian team, we had even beaten 6-2 on aggregate the previous year. We were just not on it against two vastly inferior teams.
Obviously, we came up short in our attitude and approach to those games.
There were surprises, sometimes not good ones, but it was more exciting.
Your mindset was “we have to be on it here” because if you weren’t you would go out.
In this format, without jeopardy, mentally you are not on your edge. You could tell with Pep Guardiola’s demeanour after City suffered defeats at Juventus and Paris St Germain, they knew they would still beat Bruges in their last game and go through.
No. There are too many meaningless games for the sake of money here.
Don’t forget, we have seen Aston Villa charge £97 a ticket and Arsenal over £100 for Champions League games this season.
It’s an accountant-driven, monetised scheme with little consideration for the supporter or indeed the welfare of the players. And this at a time when, not only here in Britain but France, Spain and Germany, are all having cost of living struggles. It’s needless greed and it will be detrimental to the game we love. -MailOnline.
Online Reporter