TornadoTed
Established Member
Don't get me wrong I was 100% against the ESL. I can just see why it has surfaced because the Champions League and Europa League in my opinion are truly awful competitions and with the upcoming changes it sounds like they are only going to get worse.There will always be boring games. Have you watched United v the top teams lately in the league. Have you watched our games against City. Absolutely nothing interesting or exciting. It is a myth that these big games are so much more exciting that others. The only difference is there's more at stake.
Without boring games there will never be exciting games. Unfortunately every game can not have the significance of a final.
Plus small teams have to exist. We can't just say small teams have no place in major competitions. Some of those smaller teams did better than us against the likes of Bayern when in the CL.
My idea was not so much about seeing the 'big' teams play each other but more about making it a straight knockout which takes away the safety net that the group stage gives. Teams regularly have 1-2 points after 3 games and still qualify. A straight KO would stop that sort of nonsense, you play really poorly one match and you are as good as out. It would also give the top players less games, it's getting a bit stupid when players are expected to play 60 games a season and then go and play International tournaments most summers.