A Return to the Old Format?

This is something I've been thinking about. How feasible do you guys think a close implementation of the old European Cup format is in the modern era? No groups, no multiple entries from the same country, just a straight knockout tournament.

Here's the rough idea. The representatives of 1-24 in the UEFA league rankings get a bye while 25-53 have to fight for 6 spots. Once the playoffs are done, then there is a two-legged knockout phase of 32 teams until the one-legged final.

Then there are the possible repercussions:

1. The Europa league would get attention and funding now that a lot of big teams would participate in it.
2. There would be a lot of easy ties in the Champions League for a while. Perhaps resulting in a loss of interest/funding (?)
3. The Champions of smaller nations would get enough money to be able to monopolize their home leagues.
4. Teams that would normally qualify for the Europa League wouldn't have any European competition (bring back the Intertoto Cup?)
5. Less complaints of game scheduling after Champions League matches.
6. Trimmed down Europa League without Champions League castoffs.


I'm sure there a lot more but they aren't coming to mind now. Any thoughts?

Will never happen, and should never happen. Imagine a Champions League with no Real Madrid, no Valencia, no Chelsea, no Manchester City, no Inter, no Bayern Munich, because that's what you'd have these days. The Europa League would be much harder to win, and it'd be the more lucrative tournament because it'd have more great teams in it.

My Dad always go on about how he would love the old style European Cup Knockout back.

Will never happen.

It shouldn't just be champions.

Rei Andros wrote:This is something I've been thinking about. How feasible do you guys think a close implementation of the old European Cup format is in the modern era? No groups, no multiple entries from the same country, just a straight knockout tournament.

Here's the rough idea. The representatives of 1-24 in the UEFA league rankings get a bye while 25-53 have to fight for 6 spots. Once the playoffs are done, then there is a two-legged knockout phase of 32 teams until the one-legged final.

Then there are the possible repercussions:

1. The Europa league would get attention and funding now that a lot of big teams would participate in it.
2. There would be a lot of easy ties in the Champions League for a while. Perhaps resulting in a loss of interest/funding (?)
3. The Champions of smaller nations would get enough money to be able to monopolize their home leagues.
4. Teams that would normally qualify for the Europa League wouldn't have any European competition (bring back the Intertoto Cup?)
5. Less complaints of game scheduling after Champions League matches.
6. Trimmed down Europa League without Champions League castoffs.


I'm sure there a lot more but they aren't coming to mind now. Any thoughts?

As rr mentioned it would never happened because cutting real Madrid and e.t.c out of the tournament would never happen. I think that it would 'benefit' the smaller leagues a lot because the balance of the money between the two cups will balance out so champions league will lose cash while the Europa will get more. The Champions league would possibly be more boring because of how you said so many boring ties. We would have to wait till the quarters for some good matches (maybe even the semis) but if the leagues all around Europe become more balanced then wouldn't you expect the teams to become more evenly matched?

Would never work in the end. Same teams from spain,england and italy would dominate and possibly even more so. While the worse leagues will get cash from Europe they will never be able to compete with the league money that the current top leagues do.

So yeah, i don't want it.

Fuck that. Only 1 Polish team? Fuck that.