Chumps League Draw

[derekfaejapan]

5 hours ago, thewolf_1980 said:

Do you remember the good old days, not all that long ago, when the Champions League was appropriately named and it was a straight draw, no seeds, and if the English Champions happened to be drawn against the German champions in the first round, so be it? Great days.

The respective champions of England v Germany; winners to play the respective champions of Scotland v Denmark. Wonderful.

Yup, agreed. The CL is a load of pish, I lost interest in it years ago.

I couldn't tell you who's current champions.

[Toepoke]

6 hours ago, thewolf_1980 said:

Do you remember the good old days, not all that long ago, when the Champions League was appropriately named and it was a straight draw, no seeds, and if the English Champions happened to be drawn against the German champions in the first round, so be it? Great days.

The respective champions of England v Germany; winners to play the respective champions of Scotland v Denmark. Wonderful.

I think that was because the English champions were unseeded due their low ranking following the 5 year UEFA ban?

[Toepoke]

40 minutes ago, derekfaejapan said:

Yup, agreed. The CL is a load of pish, I lost interest in it years ago.

I couldn't tell you who's current champions.

[wellyman]

Amazing how they can make the CL draw last so long,   it is no longer just a draw it is juggling rich teams around so they miss each other.

From 2018 season it gets worse when the top 4 from England,Spain, Italy & Germany automatically go straight into the group stages, that basically leaves 16 places for the rest of Europe to fight over !!!

 

[EddardStark]

Not much interest in this competition other than the possibility of Celtic getting hammered in at least a couple of those games is appealing.

[Rossy]

6 hours ago, thewolf_1980 said:

Do you remember the good old days, not all that long ago, when the Champions League was appropriately named and it was a straight draw, no seeds, and if the English Champions happened to be drawn against the German champions in the first round, so be it? Great days.

The respective champions of England v Germany; winners to play the respective champions of Scotland v Denmark. Wonderful.

It was a lifetime ago. **

 

** See also the 'Scotland's Game' thread....

 

[vanderark14]

UEFA to announce new CL proposals today

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11945/10551522/champions-league-revamp-could-guarantee-premier-league-four-slots-in-group-stages

Celtic fans better enjoy this while it lasts because it could be about to get a lot harder to reach it.

 

[adamntg]

9 hours ago, thewolf_1980 said:

Do you remember the good old days, not all that long ago, when the Champions League was appropriately named and it was a straight draw, no seeds, and if the English Champions happened to be drawn against the German champions in the first round, so be it? Great days.

The respective champions of England v Germany; winners to play the respective champions of Scotland v Denmark. Wonderful.

And you would remember the games for years because they were so special.  

Instead we get Barca v Bayern v Arsenal v PSG for ever and ever and ever...

I blame Campbell Ogilvie.

 

[adamntg]

31 minutes ago, vanderark14 said:

UEFA to announce new CL proposals today

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11945/10551522/champions-league-revamp-could-guarantee-premier-league-four-slots-in-group-stages

Celtic fans better enjoy this while it lasts because it could be about to get a lot harder to reach it.

 

And here was me thinking they might feel it had got a bit stale and lo - they're going to make it even more stale!

It really ceases to be the European Cup if it's not open to all teams in Europe.  It's becoming like that exhibition tournament Celtic were invited to in Dublin.

[Toepoke]

44 minutes ago, vanderark14 said:

UEFA to announce new CL proposals today

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11945/10551522/champions-league-revamp-could-guarantee-premier-league-four-slots-in-group-stages

Celtic fans better enjoy this while it lasts because it could be about to get a lot harder to reach it.

 

Will it be the death knell to Platini's "Champions" qualifying route to the CL?

 

[dipped flake]

The CL is just a joke competition now (has been for years). As someone else said, it's more a series of glamour friendlies disguised as group games. It only gets remotely interesting when it gets to the semi-finals stage.  

[slasher]

The Champions route has been retained.

[sbcmfc]

4 minutes ago, Toepoke said:

Will it be the death knell to Platini's "Champions" qualifying route to the CL?

 

One of the few positive changes we've seen too.

Is it 5 places? Celtic, legia Warsaw, ludogrets, Copenhagen, dinamo Zagreb at a glance.

Presume they'd have to reduce this? Or stick the champions of Holland, Portugal, France in the qualifiers?

[wellyman]

The one positive out of the re-vamp of the CL is that a club is based on its own coefficient and not the country anymore.

[macy37]

The same half dozen teams year on year will feature in the final mix up. Utter turgid pish but if it were only champions would that change much? 

 

[vanderark14]

55 minutes ago, wellyman said:

The one positive out of the re-vamp of the CL is that a club is based on its own coefficient and not the country anymore.

Does this mean Celtic winning means nothing to the rest of us?

[Toepoke]

Heard in the radio there the biggest losers will be 11th and 12th ranked leagues (currently Switzerland and Czech Rep) who will lose their automatic spots.

I guess if it takes away the opportunity for tonkings like Man City and Moenchengladbach dished out this week it will make the qualifiers a bit more competitive for smaller clubs...

 

[Bino's]

3 hours ago, dipped flake said:

The CL is just a joke competition now (has been for years). As someone else said, it's more a series of glamour friendlies disguised as group games. It only gets remotely interesting when it gets to the semi-finals stage.  

even in the semis

 

both sides just try to defend and foul their way to victory

 

its boring, haven't seen a game since bt took the rights

 

haven't missed it

[Chief]

2 hours ago, wellyman said:

The one positive out of the re-vamp of the CL is that a club is based on its own coefficient and not the country anymore.

Don't see this as a positive at all, if anything it'll be more of a closed shop. Leicester were rightly seeded in the top pot this time because they won one of the hardest leagues, there's no way a team like Arsenal deserve to be seeded higher just because they finish 4th every year. 

[wellyman]

2 hours ago, Chief said:

Don't see this as a positive at all, if anything it'll be more of a closed shop. Leicester were rightly seeded in the top pot this time because they won one of the hardest leagues, there's no way a team like Arsenal deserve to be seeded higher just because they finish 4th every year. 

I don't give a shite about the English clubs they will have there automatic 4 teams in the CL no matter what.

I was referring to clubs like Celtic who had to start in the first qualifying round due to the low coefficient points of the country ,  when Uefa looked at the coefficient points it related to all Scottish teams in Europe and as we all know that amounted to sweet feck all.

From 2018 it will relate to the way the individual club has performed , so if Celtic get pumped out in the first round then its Celtic who will suffer the next time they play in Europe, if they get to the group stages it will mean the next season they would miss getting done by some team from Gibraltar as they would miss that round.

[Fermer]

11 hours ago, Batzek-osemba said:

Fantastic draw. Not in terms of progression to the next round nor having another shot in the euro league but really attractive.

I am living 30 minutes away down the autobahn from Borussia Mönchengladbach Nordpark Stadion and am defo buying Tickets and will go there. Can see a good number of celtic fans coming over and staying in Cologne and Düsseldorf rather than Gladbach. 

 

Barca and City..not much to say bout these 2 other than: wow

Jealous.  It is a fantastic draw for celtic fans.  the nights will be brilliant with nothing to lose.  If I was Rodgers I would be saying them.  Its 11 v 11.  Defeatist country in attitude mate.  Barcelona are pish.  Just ask my great pal Ally McLeod.  Now if he were here...........  Enjoy these nights mate while you can. 

[macy37]

am I reading it right that basically the points now mean we won't be carrying the rest of the clubs in Scotland?

[sbcmfc]

1 hour ago, macy37 said:

am I reading it right that basically the points now mean we won't be carrying the rest of the clubs in Scotland?

If playing teams from Azerbaijan a week into the school holidays, 8 games from a group stage is where we are while getting carried, what happens now.

[adamntg]

45 minutes ago, sbcmfc said:

If playing teams from Azerbaijan a week into the school holidays, 8 games from a group stage is where we are while getting carried, what happens now.

The rest of us just don't get to play at all, unless we can demonstrate commercial appeal. 

[wembley67lisbon]

Ac Milan etc just want to be in every year because they are too pish to qualify anymore. 

Can see it going to 64 team group stages soon and doing away with Europa league.