Michael Gannon of The Daily Record has today written one of the daftest posts of the year, which as you’ll know is quite some statement considering the fierce competition he has. His article, today, on why Celtic’s defeat in Barcelona is a “threat” to Scotland’s place in the top competition is dumb if we’re being generous to him.
There is very little in his piece which carries the stamp of fact.
Much of it is supposition and other parts simply made up nonsense.
His article states that the “Champions route is on its last legs” and that it “won’t be allowed to continue much longer.”
Well, it’ll continue for at least six more years … that’s a fact whether he and others like it or not. It will probably continue far beyond that point, because UEFA is changing, and with the election of a new president the changes that have been mooted guaranteeing teams from four leagues sixteen of the thirty two places in the Groups are by no means set in stone now.
There is plenty of time for more change, and it won’t the one the so-called big clubs want.
I don’t know how many times I have to write this, or how many times people have to say it, but it’s clearly not getting through; UEFA has absolutely no interest at all in turning their major tournaments into “closed shops.”
It’s against their constitution for a start, and its leaders, from as far back as the inception of the first Champions League format, have been adamant that there will never be such a thing. It is not called the Champions League for nothing; the winners of domestic leagues will always get a seat at the table, although whether they can reach the steak is another matter.
What’s the rationale behind Gannon’s nonsense? That some of the games are boring, and one sided? So are games in this league, the Spanish league – where Barcelona and Real routinely inflict these kind of defeats on other sides – the English league, the German league which is ruled by one team, the French and Dutch leagues and those in Portugal and elsewhere.
Why should European football be any different?
Last season, Barcelona scored six against Roma.
Did that spark panic in Italy over their Champions League spot? When a couple of sides are this far in front of everyone, you will get more one-sided games than not. The solution to that isn’t to have a small group of teams that play each other every single year. Believe it or not, that, too, gets boring.
UEFA’s new president is being picked apart in the same paper today, because he hasn’t given a cast-iron pledge to tear up the new proposals and put them in the bin.
His opponent in the election did.
But Aleksander Ceferin has said a closed shop league is “out of the question” and predicted that it would spark “a war” between UEFA and the clubs, and he’s right.
Like every other governing body, UEFA draws its power from consent.
You can’t narrow football’s biggest competition to a small group of teams without drawing the overwhelming opposition of other clubs, and the much vaunted, much threatened “breakaway” league is a pipe dream, and a fantasy, because of the implications – legal and commercial – for any side who dared. Their national teams would be banned from competition. Transfer embargos would be imposed on them throughout the rest of the European football family … I could go on and on.
It’s a bluff, and it sounds to me very much like there’s someone at the head of UEFA who is willing to call it exactly that and see where they want it to go.
Likewise at FIFA, now run by Gianni Infantino, who was the architect of the Champions Route into the top competition in the first place … he, too, is opposed to any such changes.
The people running football have spoken on this over and over again.
The Daily Record employs hacks who keep on ignoring that.
It amazes me these folk are allowed to draw a salary.