Platini Europe plans wrong way to go
The new plan suggested by Michel Platini to expand the Champions League is illogical and lacks any significant purpose.
The new format would see UEFA get rid of the Europa League, leaving just one European competition with as much as 64 teams. Proposed for 2015, the new tournament might open up the Champions League to as many as seven English clubs and five Scottish teams.
The Europa League has been much maligned and discredited – with critiques claiming an inferior European competition defeats the purpose of competing with foreign teams.
The new format would invite more of the same. The Champions League is supposed to be the elite teams in Europe competing for the coveted crown of Champions of Europe. By allowing lower quality teams to enter the tournament, it will reduce the quality of the group stages and all together obliterate the status which comes from being in the tournament itself.
One plus point may be that it will offer a fairy tale-esque feel to the competition, but ultimately it’ll lower the opportunities for lesser clubs to win European trophies and eliminate the glamour attached to the Champions League.
For all its faults, the Europa League gives top clubs from less prominent footballing nations a chance to show what they can do on a European stage, adds another revenue stream for UEFA and offers clubs more opportunities to earn money out of match days.
Arsene Wenger has already expressed his disagreement with the new plans, saying it would lower the level of the competition and also be detrimental to the national leagues as well.
If Platini is seriously considering the esteem of the Europa League, it would be better to end it all together.
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