Should League Champions Get Automatic Champions League Entry?
Liverpool take on Belgian league champions Standard Leige today in their first leg of Champions League qualification.
The contest revives an interesting and often-visited debate – is the Champions League a competition for ‘champions’ or merely the most marketable teams in Europe?
Liverpool are favourites for the clash and with good reason – they’ve got a massively superior squad and play in a tougher league.
If champions were automatically qualified for Champions League (which would either reduce qualification spots for big leagues or force qualifiers from those leagues to start at a lower level), it would have two direct consequences:
1. The exposure to guaranteed Champions League football will bring more attention and therefore more investment into the smaller leagues, raising standard of play and allowing top clubs a better chance of retaining players. Eventually (eventually, not overnight) the standard of football as a whole would rise across Europe.
2. There’s an increased chance of big teams failing to qualify for the Champions League (either because the allocation was reduced or because they had to face qualification earlier in the season [Liverpool today are not as fluent as Liverpool 2 weeks ago]). Bad for business.
What do you think?
Ahmed,
Good Debate, since both sides have a strong fight, expect it to be debated for some time.
I can’t help but wonder if giving automatic berths to winners from (the Belgian league and other Leagues) weaker leagues will strengthen the entire league though, or make the Nation markeable to stars. Sure, Standard would keep a few stars, but would you expect Germinal to raise the bar?
Joe Cole makes shock move to Club Brugge…. I love it!
I’d rather see Arsenal, Liverpool, AS Roma or Villareal occupy those spots. Standard still stands a chance against Liverpool anyways.
Big question. I don’t think it’s right that the smaller leagues get closed out.
It would be good for the international spirit of the game if some big clubs missed out, but it wouldn’t be much of a spectacle in the short term. Long term it could really bring on these smaller footballing outposts.
But with as much respect as I can muster, I don’t want to watch a group match between Standard Liege and Olympiakos next season.
Money-wise we all know that the Champions League really wants to head in a European super league direction, and again, that kind of means Shakhtar Donetsk (certainly not the weakest team I could name) won’t be invited.
How much money does a team get after qualifying to the group stage? A comparatively large amount would only ensure that the belgian league becomes as predictable as our epl.
Absolutely they should get an automatic berth. If you win your domestic league, you are by definition champions and shouldn’t have to qualify to be in the Champions League. It seems ludicrous that even the Belgian or Icelandic champsions should have to fight to get in. An automatic berth in the group stage should be the right of winning your domestic league.
Yes, eventually the quality of play will increase and in the meantime, some domestic champions will get slaughtered in the group phase, but if, for example, domestic leauge champions got an automatic berth, would Rangers have tanked the Scottish Premier League title.
Besides, the whole coefficient thing is bloody annoying and hard to decipher so let the second and third place domestic teams play to get in. It would make for some more entertaining qualifying stages.
Wednesday nights, would you rather watch league champions Valetta (Malta) v. league champions Santa Coloma (Andorra), or non-champions Liverpool v. non-champions Juventus?
Granting direct Champions League access to small associations like San Marino or the Faroe Islands would not grow these leagues into anything resembling the Eredivisie or the Bundesliga. The entire population of the Faroe Islands would fill half of Camp Nou- does winning the Faroese championship give NSI more claim to Europe than Barcelona has???
I would favour any league Champions getting an automatic berth in the UCL, but to think both sides of the coin, the best sides in Europe competing will be better.
Cuz, i dont think 32 spots can filled by all of Europes champions and even if it is possible, i can say that the path to the semis is like having to play in friendly tournament. United, Real, Inter and Bayern/Lyon. Usually in the group stages there will be some sort of fight for the top 2 spots now i guess it is a matter of choosing which match a club wants to secure top spot.
That way i think even the FA Cup will be higher ranked then the Club Football’s Holy Grail.
Even if they do take pride in the UCL, i dont think these ‘Champions’ can handle playing in Europe and their domestic league. Stadiums, facilities, finances etc. Can they juggle playing in Europe and their domestic league? Will they even qualify consistantly?
It is like Millwal a few years back in the UEFA Cup.
Arsenal won! we will win everything!
I like the idea of all top-level champions qualifying with a mix of non-champions–but maybe make it like most Cup competitions and bring in the “better league” teams later on.
Perhaps only the top two EPL, Budeslegia, Serie A, etc. avoid the early rounds. It might only add a week or so to the competition to eliminate some teams if it were made a two-game home and home to hold a qualifying round.
Question: How many domestic leagues are in Europe?
I’m a moron, that’s how it already works. Bloody Yank. OK, reduce the number of “upper eschelon” teams (EPL, etc.). It may be boring for some, but you may get better viewership early on…
Champions League should be for Champions Only – hence the name!