In the Leicester programme just less than two weeks ago I mentioned the January transfer window and what that might have in store for the "big four" if one of them drops out of those Champions League spots. Manchester City of course look unlikely to gatecrash the party this season but next year they could do if they get spending those Abu Dhabi millions before the end of next August. The recent news that the format for the Champions League will be changed from the start of the 2009-10 now makes the potential ramifications of one the big four missing out even more poignant, especially so in the current financial climate. The most important change from an English perspective being in the final qualifying round which could now see England's fourth team pitted against the fourth placed team from Spain or Italy, or the third placed side in France or Germany. UEFA's general secretary David Taylor no doubt making waves across the Premier League with his comments to BBC Sport : <i>"To the big clubs who may miss out I would say tough luck. This is a sporting competition and there is no guarantee of success. This is good for European football because we are refreshing the competition and we will have increased interest with clubs who have possibly never played in the Champions League before."</i> Whether or not the bank managers of the big four will see it as tough luck during what looks like is going to be a deep economic recession is another question. Especially given the latest financial figures from the competition which tell us that in both getting to the final in Moscow last year, Manchester United and Chelsea earned over £41 million and £36 million respectively. Although once you've punted almost £31 million of it on Dimitar Berbatov it doesn't give you much spare change to service your debts, of at May 2008, erm, £764 million. Chelsea are pushing the Red Devils to the wire though with their debt at the same time sitting at £736 million, of which a rather quaint £578 million has been built up in an interest free loan from Roman Abramovich since he bought the Stamford Bridge outfit in 2003. Something certainly needs changing to make the Champions League more interesting, although as a fan of a League One club I am more interested in what happens in the leagues above than beneath to be honest, which perhaps doesn't make me the least biased person to comment. I can certainly feel closer to the likes of Barrow and Workington than I can to the Premier League billions though that's for sure. The group stages format came into being in 1992 and at first it was interesting, something new, something different, a change to the norm. There are only so many times though that you can watch Porto play Juventus and have the remotest bit of interest in it, my level probably being once. At least if the smaller countries who have to go through all the qualifying rounds, from Switzerland at rank 16 to San Marino at rank 53 can get a team in the group stages then it might spice things up a little. To what extent though? Is your average Joe in the street across Europe going to be any more interested in IFK Gothenburg against Juventus then they are in Porto against Juventus? The problem you have now, especially perhaps in the short term if is that you will more than likely end up in the group stages with more heavy defeats and more dead rubbers in the latter stages of a particular group. Some would point to the way that CFR Cluj gave Bordeaux, Chelsea and Roma a good run for their money recently but even they themselves are an anomaly. The Romanian club currently being heavily bankrolled by Transylvanian magnate Arpad Paszkany, their 28-man Champions League squad containing just seven Romanian players. So where does the competition go from now given that it looks like they could be damned if they do and damned if they don't. Well, and back to David Taylor ironically enough, some of us would say "tough luck" if interest wanes, given the way that the nose has been in the financial trough at the expense of others as long as it has. You'd think that going back to the straight knockout format might be a good idea, but nearly all of the Champions League regulars can't afford to be knocked out early now in that system due to the big debts they have built up in chasing that Champions League cash cow. So it looks like we'll just continue sticking aces and jacks on the house of cards for the time being until one day the roof falls in. |