@@ObviouslyKieran That doesn't always happen though. Brentford slaughtered Chelsea at the weekend, West Brom did it last year, Bradford did it a few years ago, Forest have beaten Arsenal twice in the last couple years, Sheriff beat Real Madrid, Crystal Palace have beaten Man City and Man Utd TWICE in the last few years, Burnley beat Man Utd and Liverpool in recent years, We beat City last season. The point is football is beautiful for these moments and they happen more often then you think a few times a season at least. Don't try and justify a super league there's no justification!
@@Liverpool-Thedirtyredteam You automatically assumed I was for *The Super League* which I'm not and completely missed my point about Celtic being cannon fodder in the UCL.
This is probably my favourite video of yours to date. It's absolutely spot on. The increased financialisation of the world since the 70s/80s has returned enormous wealth gains for a tiny minority of shareholders, executives and landlords. Meanwhile public services hang from a thread, living standards stagnate (if not plummet) and businesses behave in increasingly unethical ways. Football is a sport made and defined by the working class, but is being squeezed to the point of being exclusionary by some of the most avaricious people in society. Loved every second of this, it really scratched at my 'class-rage itch'.
Everybody keeps repeating this, but fails to grasp the root of the issue (tip: starts with "capital" and ends with "ism"), and almost everybody is resistent to any real change, because they're too involved and caught up in the system.
@@paul1234730 Well, technically I agree with you. It's just that 'end Capitalism' seems seems a bit overkill (not to mention extraordinarily difficult to actually do) when we're talking about corruption/money in football. So favouring a variant of Capitalism that isn't so obsessed with the financial sector seems a bit more practical (and even that's a stretch!)
Preach it's pretty much impossible for any club that isn't in the big team bubble to get any chance of champion success in these leagues that it makes the race for the title feel borderline predicable
I REALLY dislike UEFA. They were really against the European super league, saying that those greedy club owners would kill football for everyone else and what do they do, they come up with awful plans to increase there own revenue. What a terrible example to set for everyone to follow. Feel really sorry for teams like Leicester and west ham who could finish 5th in the premier league and Manchester United who could finish 7th and still get into the champions league. Shameful!
The idea of UEFA is to include more teams but based on merit. The super league would be a cartel with clubs self-selected but not on merit. The latter would allow in Tottenham and Arsenal but not some of tune teams that finish above them in the Premier league.
@@patrickmccutcheon9361 what is this ridiculous merit argument? UCL is just some people in an office with no overhead who are getting exceedingly rich off of the hard work and investments of football clubs. They take most of the money for doing nothing (basically just signage and branding) and threaten legal and financial attacks on clubs who even talk about being in or forming another international league. All reward and no risk. They are already a cartel!!!! They did absolutely nothing to help the clubs hit by the pandemic, and gave them fines instead! Imagine something like that happened in your own life and you'd be changing your tune pretty damn quick. You are probably against the Walmart employees who finally managed to form a union. Typical comment of people who can't differentiate between football playing and the professional football business. How could it ever be "merit-based" when some clubs spend more on one player than others have for their entire budget? I wouldn't mind if the UCL collapsed and something replaced it where the clubs control most of the money. They are the ones who have to manage the huge financial risks in a business which is seldom profitable.
It's shameful, and UEFA and European club owners are close to killing the golden goose. The reason why folks love the current format is down to clubs not playing each other every week.it makes these games special!! Like the presenter wasn't a fan of Champions League and still not, it should only be league champions of each league.
The current group stage is a joke and can be totally skipped. It fixes 8 groups with 2 clear favourites in each one of them that 90 to 95% of the time go through. A swiss format is much more interesting. I don't like the increase to 10 games, but the structure IS better.
Hey Alfie, I just thought of a cracking idea for a video you could do on the turbulent recent history of Goztepe in the Super Lig. They’re one of the Super Lig’s most well supported clubs (a bit like a Newcastle United, Sunderland or Strasbourg if you may). In the 2001/02 season, they finished seventh in the top flight, however from 2002 to 2008, they were relegated five times in six seasons, due to their inability to reduce their outstanding debt which resulted in the football club being banned from signing new players during that time. In August of 2007, a business based in Istanbul, vowed to take them back to the top flight making them one of the top five clubs in the country, but they were met with lots of suspicions from the fan base, and then they handed over the ownership to another bloke called Mehmet Sepil in 2014. Anyway, they’re back in the Super Lig as a solid mid table/weaker top half team. Why am I bringing all this up? Because apparently Abramovich is looking to possibly buy the club himself, after being sanctioned from the UK. It’s a crazy crazy story and may you could look into this, not to mention, they are not only a rare example of a club that is considered a neighbourhood club, as well as the fact that they’ve played in 3 different stadiums since 2011, but also in 1969, they became the first Turkish football team to play a semi-final of a European competition.
love this video idea to talk about Göztepe! another Turkish club worth doing a video about would be Kardemir Karabükspor. their downfall ever since they got relegated from the Süper Lig about 4 years ago they've been finishing bottom of every league they've been in. nearly every Karabukspor game has been at the very least a 3-0 loss and its a major miracle if they even draw
I'd like to see no parachuting between the three competitions. Each club should only be able to compete for one European trophy per season. That way clubs from weaker nations have an opportunity to progress in the Europa or Conference competitions. Otherwise how can Eastern European clubs in general ever hope to prosper? Clubs with huge potential followings and proud traditions in those nations continually fail to provide strong opposition to the wealthy clubs of the West. Guaranteeing that Big Clubs can't fail means they will play fewer matches with critical outcomes and they will consequently field weaker line ups, even in ties against other Big Clubs. Plus WHAT ABOUT THE PLAYERS? The ridiculous overload of matches players are currently required to play all year round is ridiculous and highly damaging - what is the European Nation's League for? To add even more fixtures is abhorrent and will drastically shorten the careers of vulnerable young players.
this is definitely UEFA trying to make Champions League more like American sports and I really don't know how to feel about that. but thank you Alfie for this coverage
Ruining everything as usual with their lack of identity, the same thing with these new corporate-esque logos popping up everywhere. Football is more than a bizz, darn ass yanks.
Great video. I agree with you mostly. The changes are not good for the game. They are cheapening the Champions League by allowing far too many teams to participate. The Europa League is supposed to be the consolation prize for teams that had a good season but were not quite good enough to get into the Champions League. Now teams may get in based on their past results. The problem is the people in charge of the game at FIFA, UEFA, and other confederations are not good stewards of the game. They do not make decisions for sporting reasons but for financial reasons. Eventually, that is going to catch up with them.
30 years ago, when you win an European Cup, even the Cup Winners or the UEFA, you made a great performance The Champions was the best, of course, but the other was a proof of great season The Europa and Conference League are FAR from that Even if Barça won the Europa, it's because they were to weak to be in the top 16 in C1...
Great video, Alfie. We can't have anything nice. Everything must be monetized, and everything that is already monetized must have further monetization and further price increases. If you're enjoying something without paying loads of money, that's seen as a problem to many people both within football and without.
Part of the insidious plan to remove, bit by bit, the threat to the big clubs revenue caused by not qualifying for the European competitions. Super league stepping stone.
This has nothing to do with big clubs revenues. There is a mentality of wanting a European state and having singular sports competitions and instructions is part of that mentality. It is not some big conspiracy but just the ideology of those involved in various organizations.
It'll be like having wildcards and special invitations, like say in tennis and golf. Except these will be for failing big name clubs rather than up and coming talent.
In theory? Yeah. In reality? Four group games, followed by six knock-out matches for the eventual finalists would mean a tournament which lasted around three months. It would butcher club football (and do no favours to clubs’ pre-season plans); the lunatics at FIFA would doubtless augment the third-place play-off with fifth-place play-off matches and similar nonsense; and many (a majority of?) fans would simply lose interest midway through the tournament as it droned on. And don’t even ask me to guess how you’d host it. We’ve tried having a Euros spread across multiple countries and it was rubbish, but there are *no* countries which could host the near-500 matches it would entail.
@@stingersplash Unfortunately the media narrative is what runs the show. As greedy as they depicted Perez and the super league boys, UEFA is no better. All the pundits spoke about what a catastrophe this would be, yet now I haven’t seen any analysis despite there being downtime from club football.
@@russellward4624 Not really. All those clubs would get more revenue from participating in the ESL, whilst now UEFA takes a huge chunk. The winner of the CL makes less than a relegated PL team at the end of the season. I’m in no way a fan of the ESL as it would water out the product and make big games less special, but I do however have a problem with UEFA and their conduct.
I remember when Real Madrid played Manchester United in the first knockout round of the champions league, Platini stated that such a tie should never take place at such a stage because it was "unfair" on the fans to see big clubs play each other in anything other than the finals. That and UEFA would make more money if it was later in the tournament
Let me change that: "is was very unfair for our pockets at UEFA mafia, that this teams actually meet each other so early. It was a mistake. It will never happen again." And i never did.
I agree with your view on how the champions league should be. No group stage, just straight knockout against any club. Hence why it was called the European Cup. You had to beat the best to be the best, not avoid the best until the quarter/semi-finals. Also only the league champions can compete and not 4th place, but money comes first I presume 🤷🏼
Even if we returned to that format, we would need major changes such as salary caps, proper FFP rules that actually severely punish teams, and less glory hunting idiocy. Football will always be rigged at that level because of money.
@@mik3049 Most of the money right now comes from qualifying for the CL and those smaller teams that rely on the income from the CL are usually the champions of their own league.
can't help think it were built to fail. months of scheming and they didn't even manage to get a functioning website off the ground. next thing you know both fifa and uefa have carte blanche to fundamentally alter the game with the biannual world cups and champions league overhaul completely unchallenged because all eyes were on the esl trainwreck.
@@campbelljacable Exactly. They kept the scheming away from the media because they surely knew the backlash would occur. It is simple deflection tactics, the 'new champions league' format is very similar to the ESL. And leagues over KO competitions always benefit the elite. And the elite clubs are the money makers.
Rugby union did something similar with their European cup but instead had 2 groups of 12 where you would only play 2 of those teams home and away. The system is terrible in my view and sadly I think the new system will not be as good especially the qualifying system. To me this takes away the importance of the later rounds when you actually get these big matches
Hopefully this will ensure that the richest teams always progress. Maybe UEFA should introduce some sort of paywall for smaller clubs so they can buy their way into this competition.
The Sport Betting industry I think has contributed greatly to the bastardisation of football. I don't know if you have already covered that topic, but I'd be glad to hear your take on the influence that sport betting has had on football.
Everyone who whinks that professional football is a sport is fooling himself. It is entertainment, doesn't have anything to do with who is actually the best. Footbal on high level died as a sport when money got involved.
@@janvisser4132 People objected that clubs would lose their soul and identity now that players not from the local area could play for them. I just find that wanting to go back to the past is just pointless.
The more football becomes elitist the more all those directors and leaders will drive fans away until it becomes irreversible for them. Every single decision taken by UEFA in the past 10 years has been deeply moronic (new Euro format, abolishing the UEFA cup, introducing the Europa Conference League, the list goes on..)
As always, I very much appreciate your thorough work here and you lay out an excellent case against the proposed Champions League changes. However, I can't agree with you with regards to the World Cup. You're European and you appreciate good competition, so I'm not surprised that you feel the way you do, nor do I begrudge it, but I think you may need to consider this more from a global perspective. The issue with the Champions League changes is that they will primarily benefit the bigger, wealthier teams, leaving smaller clubs to suffer. However, the WC is meant to represent the entire world and right now it favours Europe and South America far too much. Football is the number 1 sport in Africa, for example, but they currently only have 5 slots for 54 nations. The argument has always been that CONCACAF, CAF, & AFC don't compete at the same level as UEFA and CONMEBOL, and of course that's extremely valid (and true). However, much of this is because other countries simply don't have the money or experience to compete with the big European national teams (especially since the vast majority of good clubs are also in Europe). Expanding the field won't mean that suddenly small teams are going to win the Cup, of course, as it's likely that the same countries will continue to dominate the game. However, even making an appearance in the WC is a huge boon to many of these under-represented nations, not to mention a reward for the decades of loyalty and passion that many small-fed countries' fans have put into the game.
I think this also shows deeper problems in society. Due to everything I have seen not only from football but other parts of society it is necessary to fight for self ownership of companies by their employees. I often see the fight between government vs private industries but footall has shown the successes of fan-owned teams and there are other examples of cooperatives in society which have a similar idea behind them. I've decided for some time now to not only protest but to vote for politicians that favor this model or whose party is most likely to support ideas like that. Sadly in countries like Germany there isn't a party like the british Co-Operative party which openly supports this.
@@DGAMINGDE ur thinking of a communist dictatorship which is horrible but the idea of communism is not a bad for businesses like if you own ur business with your employees then you change what you and uphold ur own morals but society don't like that
I'm starting to think that maybe the Super League wouldn't be a bad idea. That way you could have a Champions League way more competitive without the richest of the riches in football.
I think Super League will happen eventually. Every single step towards favouring big teams (such as two teams getting into the CL by having good previous seasons) keeps the momentum which gives those teams (and their owners) more power. Stopping at any point means a breakaway super league, continuing the momentum leads to a CL super league. It's inevitable, I'm afraid. If just few teams (or leagues) breakaway, it'd make CL really interesting, though. Take away English, German, Spanish, Italian and French teams (+ Ajax) and you have a fairly unpredictable competition. I mean, who would take the crown there? RB Salzburg? AIK? Standard Liege? Sheriff Tiraspol? Hajduk Split? Anything's possible. (Alright, Benfica would have the best chances there, but it'd still be far less predictable than it is now.)
12:50 You know, a FIFA World League modeled after the Nations League fashion that UEFA started may give them the "One WC every two years" feel... As someone from Argentina, whose national league is in shambles due to constant expansions motivated by two big teams getting relegated in the past... both the CL and the WC constant expansions are old news that might end up decreasing the level of the competitions, as it happened to our league. Let sports be sports and not a popularity contest.
Well said.. The Big Clubs are pushing and pressuring UEFA into this, UEFA needs a massive rebuild and needs to stand strong. When they try and resist thr big clubs threaten to leave. Guaranteed after 2 seasons they will pressure to up the clubs who auto qualify on the coefficient ranking.. then try and uplift it every couple of seasons
None of this has anything to do with big clubs. There has been a mentality of making Europe into a United States for decades. Sports is just one route to that endeavor. No grand conspiracy it is what certain people want. They even have a European anthem.
@@bighands69 Well it is to do with big clubs, and commercialisation.. Many owned by Americans too in fact. They want to monetise competition to the fullest and protect their income by excluding the potential for getting knocked out / relagation / not qualifying.. They have been pressuring UEFA on Champions League rules for over a decade. UEFA should be the ruling body that keeps competition fair and keeps integrity in the game.. UEFA is corrupt too.. but it needs an overhaul and needs to be given the support of all other clubs.
My big fear with the Swiss system is that smaller clubs will play smaller clubs and big clubs will play big clubs. Who knows how the algorithm will actually work, but qualifying for the CL might feel a lot less special if it doesn't guarantee games against the likes of Real, Bayern, etc. Also, will fans be fine with fixtures being determined by a complicated algorithm rather than a simple one-time draw into groups?
I'm actually more worried about the opposite, big clubs only playing small clubs to basically guarantee the final 16 will only be teams from the top 6 countries.
This might be the best video you made so far, from the political commentary which is always welcome if the person knows what they're talking about and if their heart is in the right place, to the ideas you laid out at the end. Must say I was a bit shocked at how direct and specific the commentary was, loved it
22:50 I would actually make it a bit different I would have all 53 Uefa countries being eligible to send their 1 winning team from their domestic league into some kind of qualifiers for the champions league , of which 32 teams would make the cut into the final stage that will have the format we have had until 2023 ... 8 groups of 4 with the top of each group go to the knockouts , and the 3rd place team goes to the knockout stage for the Europa league Speaking of , for the Europa league it will be the 53 winners of each domestic cup of all Uefa nations that get into the qualifiers , and for clubs that have won a double in their nation, the place is then given to either the runner-up of the league or the cup, who do a play-off , winner goes to the Europa league , loser goes to the Conference league , if the same team finishes runner-up in both their nation's league and cup, the conference league qualifier spot goes to the 3rd place league team The 53 teams qualify for 32 spots for the Europa league , and the 53-32 = 21 teams that failed to qualify for the Champions league plus the 21 teams that failed to qualify for the Europa , plus the 21 teams that either lost the play-off i mentioned before or got 3rd place in their league , all play qualifiers for the 32 spots of the Conference league, having 63 teams fighting for the chance to enter , would surely increase the value of the Conference league Thats my idea , all nations get their chance , and no-one gets a direct spot on the champions league And sure , this means that "worse" teams might slip through the champions league , while teams that just finished 2nd or 3rd in the big 5 leagues have to play qualifiers for the conference league... I think this system is not only fair , but it would actually increase the value of all 3 Competitions (Champions , Europa , Conference) collectively even if it might dillute the value of the Champion's league on it's own
At a time when there's already too many competitive club fixtures each season, UEFA in their infinite wisdom has taken it upon themselves to add a few more. The levels of greed are only outdone by that of sheer stupidity.
I'd have to say your assessment is very well thought through and the use of Boeing as an example of killing the golden goose is a very good one. It's been a pleasure to listen to you. Thanks.
The FA cup in my home country uses the similar system as what you proposed, maybe because there are only 4 tiers from the top flight to the amateur league. Teams from all tiers except the top one can enter the qualification round, and then in the first round, the top tier teams join. Every team can either play home or away regardless of their league positions. (However, some amateur league teams might need to find a local ground to play because they normally don't have one. There are some times the amateur league teams offer to travel instead of playing home, depending on how the two teams and the FA negotiate.) The format offers a good chance for small amateur clubs to play with top-tier ones, although it might produce some one-sided score lines like 12-0, 18-0, or 1-22 (yes, there are all real score lines).
In the 1993-94 season, Turkish champions Galatasaray eliminated Mancheser United with a 3-3 tie in England and 0-0 home. Still one of the most glorious moments in Turkish football history and everybody who lived through it remembers it down to the smallest details. Even the words the commentator used to describe Arif Erdem's goal during the first match - şımaykıl değil bütün maykıllar (not just Schmeichel, bring all the Michaels and even they can't save that goal) - are now part of the Turkish football legendarium. This should be allowed to happen much more often.
UEFA already ruined the Europeans cups in 1992 when they created the Champions League. And later when they included 4th placed teams there, cancelled Cup Winners Cup and turned UEFA cup into a monster with more than 100 teams
Something the youngest fans (i.e early 20's) will be unlikely to understand unless they appreciate the history of football. Doubly so if they support either the Old Firm or a wealthy English team.
Love All the points You made especially at the End showing what happens when PROFITS are the primary goal.(😁) I'd like to add that match "Fauxing" is a Great Concern; and it's reared up quite a bit since lockdowns and Empty Stadiums! ✌️😎
Champions from each league should be in straight away rather than having to qualify when teams in England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France have teams that finish 3rd and 4th play one qualifier and then into the group stage
This was epic!!! Juxtaposing finance to the game itself from start to finish. I remember discussing the failed Super League Plans and how this was a 'they beat us at our own game' thing for UEFA. If it wasn't for the fans reacting the end result is highly questionable. Careful on nostalgia though, I believe a breakthrough is much needed and things cannot really go back. Greece, where I come from, has had one of the most corrupt football leagues since the dawn of time. For the past decade the authorities have been reforming the game every other year, constantly degrading their own product. I guess there is a point in the the past when corruption was first introduced institutionally, mirroring wider social corruption, thus engulfing the Game itself. Nostalgia would therefore in our case - the Greek case - refer to an imaginary rahter than imagined and bygone status. Can't resist thinking that this may be the case for most of the leagues apart for Europe's top 5 or 6 and the MLS probably. Perhaps initiatives of fans to progress football via equalization of opportunities and transparency of ownership, along with viable control from within and below. Oh no, that is social conflict wearing team jerseys!
They ruined it years ago when they let teams other than champions to enter. How can they call it champions league when barely a third of the teams are actual champions?
I don't often bother to comment on a youtube video but what Alfie is saying here is pretty much spot on. It's sad to see this happen to football, and even sadder knowing there is no way we can change it. Another truth that is almost as terrible is how even when we try to make these competitions random to a fair degree, the big clubs are already so far ahead that they tend to win anyway. Since the start of the 2013/14 season, only one club outside the big 6 has won the FA Cup or the League Cup (Leicester having won the FA Cup last season).
It was ruined when they let teams partake that had not won their league. ManU would never have done the treble in '99, as Arsenal won the league the previous season. The teams that win the Champions League are not necessarily the best team in Europe, as Liverpool picked up two cups before they were the best team in the country.
@@danhoppy5517 Actually thats what unique about UCL. League runner up teams beating league champions. Chelsea beat Man City, Milan beat Juve, and many other instances. People often thought league champions should be favorites against league runner up but end up losing in their most important matches.
@@vinhbao9738 Agree. Why fixate on the term "champion"? 3rd position in certain league is better than the champion of some other league anyway, so it's not like you get a better quality by making champion league all about the champions. Besides if it's only for champions we're more likely to get the same team over and over every year, as many leagues are dominated by the same clubs nowadays. That will widen the gap between these teams and the rest of the teams in their respective league even more.
Another banger of a video from our boy Alfredo. But my preferred champions league reform would be more of a league format where more teams play each other home and away and the top four finishers are the semi finalists who play off home and away to decide the finalists. And to accommodate the extra games participating teams will be excused from domestic cup competitions
Everyone should watch this, football fan or not. This is happening to EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE... Profit is put before everything these days...even healthcare. Well done for putting this out Alfie!!
I actually think the 3 tier European competition we currently have works really well. Got your top boys in the UCL. your good clubs In Europa, and up and coming teams in the conference league
Only they should cut Champions League for just champions and second placed, rest in Europa League and cup winners in third competition. That was best system
@@worlddd7777 or have the champions league with the defending champion and Best team from each country, the Europa with the second tier and the conference with the third tier 🙂
Question: Maybe I missed out on something here, but under the new swiss teams with 10 rounds before the play-offs, will all the 10 games be pre-determined before the first game, or will they use an actual swiss system? That is, they will draw the next games after each round, matching teams with the same number of points. Just like that is done in chess and many card games. If all 10 games are pre-determined, then I think it is absolutely trash.
Finally someone who understands that this is not an actual Swiss format! Due to scheduling, it wouldn't make any sense to have the Swiss system (unpredictable travel and so on) so all ten games are pre-determined. The reason they call it the Swiss system is only because: - everyone gets to play the same amount of games - no team plays any other team more than once - the final standings is one big table However, since the games are predetermined, you can easily get (and you will likely get) a team with over twenty points to play a team with single-digit points on the last gameday. Basically, nothing like the Swiss system you're used to seeing in chess, esports, etc.
@@liborkundrat185 Thank you for the reply. While I understand the reasoning wrt travel ect. I find it a real problem not using an actual Swiss system. With the pre-determined games, we basically get the same with seeding as before, just hidden away a little more. I find that the actual swiss system would be more fair, but it seems safe to say that that is not what they are going for xD
@@SteffensClassroom Yeah, actual Swiss system doesn't really work when the games aren't played in a single venue at the same time. I'm mad that that they'll go with 10 games instead of 8, efficiently killing the only advantage this new system. In the current system, a pot 1 team plays a pot 2 team twice, a pot 3 team twice and a pot 4 team twice. The original idea of the new system was that you'd play the same amount of games/teams from every pot. So ultimately it'd only add 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 games - all competitive matchups in theory. But they'll ignore the balance, since they want 10 games. Which suuuuuuuuuucks.
@@liborkundrat185 Yep. So many things suck about this. Also had it been true Swiss they actually only had to play 6 rounds with 36 teams. 10 games is just to make more money, simple -.-
Great video. One little addition I'd like to make: the main culprit in all of these decisions is what you could call the management consultant mindset. The owners of these enterprises certainly want to squeeze as much cash out of them as they can, but it is the management consultant mindset that allows them to do so, and moreover allows them to do so with a good conscience, believing that's what every other rational business own would do. Without the contribution of management consultant mindset none of these things would happen, or not as effectively. In every instance in which the consumer is completely shafted, in general, you can be sure that there is usually some HBS trained, management consultant team behind it. For US residents, think of Spirit Airways, who have achieved such innovation in the field of shoddiness and shafting consumers-this is an airline completely designed my management consultants. The list goes on and on. The fact that Americans couldn't get Covid tests for the first 6+ months of the pandemic (because there were no stockpiles of PPE, and because the supply chains for such goods had been totally internationalized)-yep, management consultants again. Their influence on the US healthcare industry has been perhaps the most damaging. This may appear to be an odd tangent, but it's difficult to understand the way these things work without talking about the pervasive influence of the management consultant mindset. Otherwise you're stuck looking at things in terms of the individual owner's greed, which is only part of the story. Anyway great video
Spot on! The management consultants are just a class of upper middle management who can squeeze a bunch of money out for themselves while still providing those above them (i.e. the executives who hired the consultants) to make EVEN more. As Don Draper so eloquently put it in Mad Men when his company looks like it will change hands again and again, “who the hell is in charge, a bunch of accountants trying to make a dollar into a dollar ten? I want to build something of my own”
It was ruined when it stopped being called the European cup and stopped being a competition for the champions of each country and became all about money. This is just the next step, surprised it’s taken this long.
I've had an idea for a format for a long time now which I think I'd share, which will give interest at each stage of the competition. A downside is a large number of fixtures across the competition but I think its good to have more teams in Europe and this also means smaller teams can have bigger opponents, like the FA Cup. No qualifiers but 256 teams enter one large European Cup format. This will mean the entire top tier of teams enter for a few higher ranked nations i.e the whole Bundesliga from the season previous qualifies. Have 4 two legged knockout rounds as follows, done on aggregate. Round 1 :128 teams qualify, top 32/256 teams seeded Round 2 64 teams qualify, top 24/128 seeds Round 3 32 teams quality, 16/64 seeded Round 4 16 teams qualify, 4/32 seeded (more jeopardy). Then a 3 game round robin with 16 teams split into 4 groups with seeded pots. Games would take place in a mini tournament on neutral ground mid season (February). Fixtures arranged so all matches apart from clashing final group games are televised in a unique slot. Top 2 from each group qualify to single leg knockouts which are on neutral ground and at the same host nation as the final itself. (May)
This idea actually look good if you are football fan but the issue is FIFA will get money from these extra 100 matches Also how do team qualified? And what happen if team lose the first 3 rounds? Will they been eliminated completely from European tournament?
@@luuduonghy659 Yeah, if you lose the first knockout rounds then you are out for the season. Seeding to balance jeopardy with make sure larger teams don't crash out too soon. (before December) In terms of extra matches and money I was thinking that by having more teams enter and a round Robin tournament UEFA could monetise that. Teams might miss a small number of gate reciepts. Teams would qualify straight from league placings - i.e 20 teams from England which would be all PL teams, say 10 teams from a league like Poland and Scotland, 5 teams from Ireland
@@tourmaline07 This will be unfair to the losing team in first 3 qualifying round. Best solution is transfer them to UEFA Europa League in third qualifying round
@@luuduonghy659 don't majorly like the idea of a secondary competition for teams who lose out in the first rounds tbh but one might need to be setup to give the teams fixtures
Day 5: Completely irrelevant to the topic of this video, but considering that the last player who played in the miracle of Bern died about 4 months ago, I would really like to see a video about the whole story between Germany and Hungary, especially because it meant so much to at least the German population
@@botondszalai77 Why? Only because of the myth (which is admittingly pretty likely) that the German team was doping, which was somewhat normal at the time? All elder people I talked about that who witnessed that win in some shape of form didn't care, they were just proud that our country meant sth again
For the future World Cup Competitions.... Seeing your own Nation play (mostly over the summer holidays) is an amazing bring your family/friends together spectacle. Having more Nations involved is a great idea I'm all for it.
Also, adding teams to the Euros and World cup doesn't reduce unpredictability - without that we probably wouldn't have had Iceland, Croatia, Switzerland making surprising long runs. For every Italy getting a lifeline, there'd also be a North Macedonia or Wales.
yes personally i think it's a great thing. I mean the World Cup was 16 teams, back when there were less countries right? So it's natural to have more slots, when there is more existing countries. Hey, that's my two pennies.
@@arkannaufal29n And I think the playing level of teams outside Europe and South America has increased over the past 3 decades. African teams for example have come a long way from being just a filler to giving established teams a run for their money. Everyone was shocked when at the 2002 World Cup a debuting Senegal threw the bombshell on the opening game no less by beating the reigning champions France. The Senegalese went on to have a really deep run by reaching the 1/4 Finals. What about Ghana, who were one penalty away (courtesy of perenial villain Luis Suarez) from reaching the Final Four in South Africa. In that same World Cup in South Africa, New Zealand (ranked 78th, one of the worst ranked nations) though didn't pass the Group Stage, they were undefeated throughout their 3 matches against Slovakia, Italy and Paraguay. 4 years later in Brazil Costa Rica managed to be the best nation from the CONCACAF zone by reaching the 1/4 Finals only losing to the Netherlands on penalty shoot-out. And let's not forget South Korea's run (albeit controversial due to clunky officiating) in 2002.
A banger of a video yet again Alfie.You're one of the few media outlets who say the truth about the direction football is going.Major companies like BT, Sky, CNN and of course the big clubs don't give a damn as long as these changes don't hurt their pockets.Keep the great journalism going!!
Don't be daft, the Champions League was never prestigious. Not when it can be won with money by only a handful. It lowers the prestige of European football. Gone are the days of Red Star Belgrade, Steaua Bucharest, Nottingham Forest or Gothenburg challenging for European Cups and instead it's about 5-6 English teams plus Barca and Madrid.
Please make a video on the disgraceful actions by the Senegalese fans against Egyptian players, such as thousands of lasers, throwing stones and bottles at players and staff, and signs with obscenity directed to Egyptian players.
I think there should also be a video on the anglophobia that has spread through football in recent years, since noone is talking about it yet it just continues to be accepted despite being plainly wrong
It was already ruined! It should have been ONLY for champions of their respective league! Should we continue with fake Man. City, PSG, etc. ridiculous budgets? While now is like 90% of Italy, Spain, UK, France and Germany leagues. They have destroyed the hole game because of the money. The beauty of this sport was that always it was surprises and underdogs. When was the last time a team from a championship outside the big five was win the UCL or lately even Europa League trophy? Or team from Easter/Central Europe or Scandinavia did it? Its disgusting what is going on but even more disgusting is the reaction of the fans of this clubs (City, Chelsea, PSG, Real, Barcelona, Milan, Juventus, Bayern etc.) that they are agree that this teams already are winning every time the UCL and they say its ok, I don't even need to watch UCL as is already clear that one of this clubs from this big 5 leagues will win it every time. UCL should have been as it was: no grups, just straight knock-outs only between the Champions of their respective league. UEFA mafia!
Best German players in the premier league of all time. (Day 298) I will not give up until the video is made or Alfie himself tells me to stop. Everyone else telling me that will be ignored. If you don't believe my number, just go back to the previous videos. I'm at the bottom most of the time, but I'm there.
The reason why the World Cup seeds are getting increased is because continents like Africa and Asia , Africa and Asia are the biggest continents in the world but have the lowest seeds slots in the World Cup while Europe has 13 the new expansion is to bring a larger number of countries that have a little slots to the World Cup
Well said. We are in an era where the SILVER DOLLAR is everything. Hope it runs in cycles and in the future will return to some sensibility. Unfortunately we live in a world where the goalposts are constantly moved to accommodate people/clubs/companies/governments who's only goal is to profit. I am over twice your age and over the past 10/15 years have realised this dominance, of the hierarchy, so hats off to you. Great video with far reaching points, keep up the great work and insight.
Not sure I'm on board with returning to full-knockout format, but I've had same thoughts about now format. And on "goosification" of virtually everything...
hey alfie im not sure if you know but in the last few days uefa confirmed theyre no longer interested in saving two slots for teams that missed out but have low coefficients
The problem is that some clubs are much more popular than others.just like man United have much much more popularity around the world than west ham. And fans of man utd will want to see their team in ucl even if they deserve it or not.
alfie m8, i ve got a really interesting idea for a vid. how about a look a jimmy glass goal for carlise in the 99 season. a goal scored by a keeper that saved carlise from relegation and doom and that killed scarbrough the team that went down.
Great Video. But (11:20) I dont think Italy would have qualified if the tournament had 48 places this year. Since UEFA will get 3 additional places, I would assume the change in qualification will be that they will scrap the play off finals and all winners of this years semi finals would be qualified.
Have you considered making a video on the recent success of the Peruvian national team?? They are massively over-performing by qualifying twice ahead of teams full of stars playing in europe’s top leagues when their own players are scattered around the world in leagues like the Saudi league, MLS and Swedish league.
I miss the days when Celtic used to defeat Barcelona despite having only 11% of ball possession
Aye imagine Celtic and rangers back in the champ league?
What,, once about 15 years ago?? Or *gasppp * Twice even??! 🤣
@@iMertin90 Only to get annihilated 7-0 and 6-1?
@@ObviouslyKieran
That doesn't always happen though. Brentford slaughtered Chelsea at the weekend, West Brom did it last year, Bradford did it a few years ago, Forest have beaten Arsenal twice in the last couple years, Sheriff beat Real Madrid, Crystal Palace have beaten Man City and Man Utd TWICE in the last few years, Burnley beat Man Utd and Liverpool in recent years, We beat City last season. The point is football is beautiful for these moments and they happen more often then you think a few times a season at least. Don't try and justify a super league there's no justification!
@@Liverpool-Thedirtyredteam You automatically assumed I was for *The Super League* which I'm not and completely missed my point about Celtic being cannon fodder in the UCL.
Alfie is not the hero we deserve, but the one we need
He's the Robin in the hero world.
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A huge point was missed here:
Elite footballers already have too many games in a season and this will cause a huge increase.
Too many games? 😂 they are paid 100k a week to kick a ball, believe me they are fine to play twice a week
@@Rob-cy8xc they will run themselves into the ground if they play too much
@@Rob-cy8xc Imagine a premier league player in boxer day, 2-3 matches per week is insane
Add in the fa cup/ carabao cup if the team is still in it.
@@CaaaaamOnYT brick layers run themselves into the ground, scaffolders. Not footballers
This is probably my favourite video of yours to date. It's absolutely spot on. The increased financialisation of the world since the 70s/80s has returned enormous wealth gains for a tiny minority of shareholders, executives and landlords. Meanwhile public services hang from a thread, living standards stagnate (if not plummet) and businesses behave in increasingly unethical ways. Football is a sport made and defined by the working class, but is being squeezed to the point of being exclusionary by some of the most avaricious people in society. Loved every second of this, it really scratched at my 'class-rage itch'.
Everybody keeps repeating this, but fails to grasp the root of the issue (tip: starts with "capital" and ends with "ism"), and almost everybody is resistent to any real change, because they're too involved and caught up in the system.
@@paul1234730 Well, technically I agree with you. It's just that 'end Capitalism' seems seems a bit overkill (not to mention extraordinarily difficult to actually do) when we're talking about corruption/money in football. So favouring a variant of Capitalism that isn't so obsessed with the financial sector seems a bit more practical (and even that's a stretch!)
@@paul1234730 okay commie. Take a one way trip to Cuba and enjoy your bread queues.
I agree Alfie is spot on but that made me depressed since there is little to nothing the average person can do about it.
Preach it's pretty much impossible for any club that isn't in the big team bubble to get any chance of champion success in these leagues that it makes the race for the title feel borderline predicable
I REALLY dislike UEFA. They were really against the European super league, saying that those greedy club owners would kill football for everyone else and what do they do, they come up with awful plans to increase there own revenue. What a terrible example to set for everyone to follow. Feel really sorry for teams like Leicester and west ham who could finish 5th in the premier league and Manchester United who could finish 7th and still get into the champions league. Shameful!
They are slavers.
Why should a team finishing 7 be in champions league ?
Absolutely disgusting
The idea of UEFA is to include more teams but based on merit. The super league would be a cartel with clubs self-selected but not on merit. The latter would allow in Tottenham and Arsenal but not some of tune teams that finish above them in the Premier league.
@@patrickmccutcheon9361 what is this ridiculous merit argument? UCL is just some people in an office with no overhead who are getting exceedingly rich off of the hard work and investments of football clubs. They take most of the money for doing nothing (basically just signage and branding) and threaten legal and financial attacks on clubs who even talk about being in or forming another international league. All reward and no risk. They are already a cartel!!!! They did absolutely nothing to help the clubs hit by the pandemic, and gave them fines instead! Imagine something like that happened in your own life and you'd be changing your tune pretty damn quick. You are probably against the Walmart employees who finally managed to form a union. Typical comment of people who can't differentiate between football playing and the professional football business. How could it ever be "merit-based" when some clubs spend more on one player than others have for their entire budget? I wouldn't mind if the UCL collapsed and something replaced it where the clubs control most of the money. They are the ones who have to manage the huge financial risks in a business which is seldom profitable.
They are against super league because those sweet sweet money doesnt come to their pockets.
As a legend once said
"It's a disgrace,It's a f**king disgrace"
Drogba 😍
It's shameful, and UEFA and European club owners are close to killing the golden goose. The reason why folks love the current format is down to clubs not playing each other every week.it makes these games special!! Like the presenter wasn't a fan of Champions League and still not, it should only be league champions of each league.
BRO ITS JUS TCASUE THEY WILL GET MORE MONE YCASUE EXTRA 100 MATCHES
truee...thats the same reason why we didn't want Super League too
We already have sort of Super League now with this Champions League. More less, same clubs playing over and over.
"folks love the current format"
Yeah, surely you mean folks who have not known what European competitions looked like before 1999/00.
The current group stage is a joke and can be totally skipped. It fixes 8 groups with 2 clear favourites in each one of them that 90 to 95% of the time go through. A swiss format is much more interesting. I don't like the increase to 10 games, but the structure IS better.
Hey Alfie, I just thought of a cracking idea for a video you could do on the turbulent recent history of Goztepe in the Super Lig. They’re one of the Super Lig’s most well supported clubs (a bit like a Newcastle United, Sunderland or Strasbourg if you may). In the 2001/02 season, they finished seventh in the top flight, however from 2002 to 2008, they were relegated five times in six seasons, due to their inability to reduce their outstanding debt which resulted in the football club being banned from signing new players during that time. In August of 2007, a business based in Istanbul, vowed to take them back to the top flight making them one of the top five clubs in the country, but they were met with lots of suspicions from the fan base, and then they handed over the ownership to another bloke called Mehmet Sepil in 2014. Anyway, they’re back in the Super Lig as a solid mid table/weaker top half team. Why am I bringing all this up? Because apparently Abramovich is looking to possibly buy the club himself, after being sanctioned from the UK. It’s a crazy crazy story and may you could look into this, not to mention, they are not only a rare example of a club that is considered a neighbourhood club, as well as the fact that they’ve played in 3 different stadiums since 2011, but also in 1969, they became the first Turkish football team to play a semi-final of a European competition.
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BRO ITS JUS TCASUE THEY WILL GET MORE MONE YCASUE EXTRA 100 MATCHES
love this video idea to talk about Göztepe! another Turkish club worth doing a video about would be Kardemir Karabükspor. their downfall ever since they got relegated from the Süper Lig about 4 years ago they've been finishing bottom of every league they've been in. nearly every Karabukspor game has been at the very least a 3-0 loss and its a major miracle if they even draw
@@strasbourgsteve wow look the idea of a video on that! Thanks for telling me about this :)
@@yusufkassim8236 no problem my friend
I'd like to see no parachuting between the three competitions. Each club should only be able to compete for one European trophy per season. That way clubs from weaker nations have an opportunity to progress in the Europa or Conference competitions.
Otherwise how can Eastern European clubs in general ever hope to prosper? Clubs with huge potential followings and proud traditions in those nations continually fail to provide strong opposition to the wealthy clubs of the West.
Guaranteeing that Big Clubs can't fail means they will play fewer matches with critical outcomes and they will consequently field weaker line ups, even in ties against other Big Clubs.
Plus WHAT ABOUT THE PLAYERS? The ridiculous overload of matches players are currently required to play all year round is ridiculous and highly damaging - what is the European Nation's League for? To add even more fixtures is abhorrent and will drastically shorten the careers of vulnerable young players.
Fantastic comment.
Would also revert back to individual club coefficient rather than the league you are in.
Great Comment!
BRO ITS JUS TCASUE THEY WILL GET MORE MONE YCASUE EXTRA 100 MATCHES
eh when u get knocked out paly offs or qualifiers ort finish 3rd i ngroup u get put to the comptition below spazzzzzzzz
this is definitely UEFA trying to make Champions League more like American sports and I really don't know how to feel about that. but thank you Alfie for this coverage
Nope. Euroleague is like that in basketball and it is more exciting than anything in the nba or something like that
BRO ITS JUS TCASUE THEY WILL GET MORE MONE YCASUE EXTRA 100 MATCHES
Ruining everything as usual with their lack of identity, the same thing with these new corporate-esque logos popping up everywhere. Football is more than a bizz, darn ass yanks.
i don't know a single American sport that functions like this. they just want more champions league games.
@@dimthegreek u are right mate I was just thinking of commenting this
Great video. I agree with you mostly. The changes are not good for the game. They are cheapening the Champions League by allowing far too many teams to participate. The Europa League is supposed to be the consolation prize for teams that had a good season but were not quite good enough to get into the Champions League. Now teams may get in based on their past results. The problem is the people in charge of the game at FIFA, UEFA, and other confederations are not good stewards of the game. They do not make decisions for sporting reasons but for financial reasons. Eventually, that is going to catch up with them.
30 years ago, when you win an European Cup, even the Cup Winners or the UEFA, you made a great performance
The Champions was the best, of course, but the other was a proof of great season
The Europa and Conference League are FAR from that
Even if Barça won the Europa, it's because they were to weak to be in the top 16 in C1...
Great video, Alfie. We can't have anything nice. Everything must be monetized, and everything that is already monetized must have further monetization and further price increases. If you're enjoying something without paying loads of money, that's seen as a problem to many people both within football and without.
It's called capitalism mate.
Part of the insidious plan to remove, bit by bit, the threat to the big clubs revenue caused by not qualifying for the European competitions. Super league stepping stone.
That's the 5000 IQ chess move. They don't have to leave UEFA to form a superleague if UEFA is doing it for them...
This has nothing to do with big clubs revenues. There is a mentality of wanting a European state and having singular sports competitions and instructions is part of that mentality. It is not some big conspiracy but just the ideology of those involved in various organizations.
It'll be like having wildcards and special invitations, like say in tennis and golf. Except these will be for failing big name clubs rather than up and coming talent.
210 countries and 42 groups is actually a really exciting idea. Lots of upsets.
Seems like youre talking about an eventual FIFA global nations league 😳🤭
@DDeglane16 Uzbekistan to score 3 goals in extra time snatching the win from Zimbabwe
In theory? Yeah. In reality? Four group games, followed by six knock-out matches for the eventual finalists would mean a tournament which lasted around three months. It would butcher club football (and do no favours to clubs’ pre-season plans); the lunatics at FIFA would doubtless augment the third-place play-off with fifth-place play-off matches and similar nonsense; and many (a majority of?) fans would simply lose interest midway through the tournament as it droned on.
And don’t even ask me to guess how you’d host it. We’ve tried having a Euros spread across multiple countries and it was rubbish, but there are *no* countries which could host the near-500 matches it would entail.
So the super league principles that Ceferin critiqued are being implemented into the CL. His criticism of Agnelli now really is a joke.
This was announced the week after the SL folded. But barely anyone notice.
@@stingersplash Unfortunately the media narrative is what runs the show. As greedy as they depicted Perez and the super league boys, UEFA is no better. All the pundits spoke about what a catastrophe this would be, yet now I haven’t seen any analysis despite there being downtime from club football.
@@omarbabakarkhail but this change is to keep those teams happy. It's not something UEFA are championing. This is them trying to satisfy those clubs.
If uefa had the super league it would’ve happened
@@russellward4624 Not really. All those clubs would get more revenue from participating in the ESL, whilst now UEFA takes a huge chunk. The winner of the CL makes less than a relegated PL team at the end of the season.
I’m in no way a fan of the ESL as it would water out the product and make big games less special, but I do however have a problem with UEFA and their conduct.
I remember when Real Madrid played Manchester United in the first knockout round of the champions league, Platini stated that such a tie should never take place at such a stage because it was "unfair" on the fans to see big clubs play each other in anything other than the finals.
That and UEFA would make more money if it was later in the tournament
Let me change that: "is was very unfair for our pockets at UEFA mafia, that this teams actually meet each other so early. It was a mistake. It will never happen again." And i never did.
I agree with your view on how the champions league should be. No group stage, just straight knockout against any club. Hence why it was called the European Cup. You had to beat the best to be the best, not avoid the best until the quarter/semi-finals. Also only the league champions can compete and not 4th place, but money comes first I presume 🤷🏼
Even if we returned to that format, we would need major changes such as salary caps, proper FFP rules that actually severely punish teams, and less glory hunting idiocy. Football will always be rigged at that level because of money.
A knockout format wouldn't be the answer though for multiple reasons.
So what are smaller clubs who rely on income from the champions league fixtures gonna do?
@@mik3049 Most of the money right now comes from qualifying for the CL and those smaller teams that rely on the income from the CL are usually the champions of their own league.
@@mik3049 Cut costs and stop massively overspending?
Gonna be a sad day when we hear that theme for the last time
Infantino is all over this. He was pro Super league, this is to appease the members of that failed attempt.
can't help think it were built to fail. months of scheming and they didn't even manage to get a functioning website off the ground. next thing you know both fifa and uefa have carte blanche to fundamentally alter the game with the biannual world cups and champions league overhaul completely unchallenged because all eyes were on the esl trainwreck.
So just Real Madrid fans then? Cos almost all the fan bases ripped into the clubs owners for the attempt.
BRO ITS JUS TCASUE THEY WILL GET MORE MONE YCASUE EXTRA 100 MATCHES
@@campbelljacable
Exactly. They kept the scheming away from the media because they surely knew the backlash would occur. It is simple deflection tactics, the 'new champions league' format is very similar to the ESL. And leagues over KO competitions always benefit the elite. And the elite clubs are the money makers.
@@alehlete830
It's always about money my guy.
Rugby union did something similar with their European cup but instead had 2 groups of 12 where you would only play 2 of those teams home and away. The system is terrible in my view and sadly I think the new system will not be as good especially the qualifying system. To me this takes away the importance of the later rounds when you actually get these big matches
I'm just not going to watch it anymore
@@involuntarilychad4048 Same here. European club football is being adapted to Asian and American consumers. The sport is basically dead.
Exactly it's bad very bad news 😕
This can't b allowed to happen
In rugby I think it was just because of COVID, so they have to decrease thé number of games
Hopefully this will ensure that the richest teams always progress. Maybe UEFA should introduce some sort of paywall for smaller clubs so they can buy their way into this competition.
Excellent idea, and the highest bidder of a game can select the venue
Hopefully you are being sarcastic
By the way, UEFA would like to thank the sponsor of this years competition: RAID: Shadow Legends
You know what? They should just make the competition an auction. Highest bidder wins.
BRO ITS JUS TCASUE THEY WILL GET MORE MONE YCASUE EXTRA 100 MATCHES
The Sport Betting industry I think has contributed greatly to the bastardisation of football. I don't know if you have already covered that topic, but I'd be glad to hear your take on the influence that sport betting has had on football.
Everyone who whinks that professional football is a sport is fooling himself. It is entertainment, doesn't have anything to do with who is actually the best. Footbal on high level died as a sport when money got involved.
It stopped when clubs started to get run like companies. And with more investors it gets worse. You right
So early 1900's then? Professional sport has always been about money.
@@xxjammymanxx something like that. I believe it was around 1890 when players got payed to come play for another club for the first time.
@@janvisser4132 People objected that clubs would lose their soul and identity now that players not from the local area could play for them. I just find that wanting to go back to the past is just pointless.
@@xxjammymanxx I didn't say I want to go back. Nothing in life is fair, I don't see why sports should be an exception.
Society Insists on Changing everything that Worked just Fine previously and The Game of Football is no different …. ⚽️
Tbh I think the solution is actually change but in the direction of ownership of companies by employees.
Think you missed the video mate, it's not society that wants these changes, it's the rich who want it so your money becomes their money.
@@alr68 hmm almost as if people in society should through some action force the rich to commit radical changes of the system we live in, hmmm
@@alr68 exactly
What things is society have been working just fine?
The more football becomes elitist the more all those directors and leaders will drive fans away until it becomes irreversible for them. Every single decision taken by UEFA in the past 10 years has been deeply moronic (new Euro format, abolishing the UEFA cup, introducing the Europa Conference League, the list goes on..)
Preach
The conference league has allowed for teams outside top 5 leagues the ability to make more money though.
The uefa cup in its old format was truly abysmal. 5 teams in the group stages wtf
@@Micfri300 That was the very old format, it changed afterwards.
@@tarik6990 the last format of the uefa cup before the europa league was introduced was exactly like i said.
alfie using his platform to radicalise his audience against the wealthy elite and corporate greed is exactly what i needed
Workers of the world unite
As always, I very much appreciate your thorough work here and you lay out an excellent case against the proposed Champions League changes. However, I can't agree with you with regards to the World Cup. You're European and you appreciate good competition, so I'm not surprised that you feel the way you do, nor do I begrudge it, but I think you may need to consider this more from a global perspective.
The issue with the Champions League changes is that they will primarily benefit the bigger, wealthier teams, leaving smaller clubs to suffer. However, the WC is meant to represent the entire world and right now it favours Europe and South America far too much. Football is the number 1 sport in Africa, for example, but they currently only have 5 slots for 54 nations. The argument has always been that CONCACAF, CAF, & AFC don't compete at the same level as UEFA and CONMEBOL, and of course that's extremely valid (and true). However, much of this is because other countries simply don't have the money or experience to compete with the big European national teams (especially since the vast majority of good clubs are also in Europe).
Expanding the field won't mean that suddenly small teams are going to win the Cup, of course, as it's likely that the same countries will continue to dominate the game. However, even making an appearance in the WC is a huge boon to many of these under-represented nations, not to mention a reward for the decades of loyalty and passion that many small-fed countries' fans have put into the game.
I think this also shows deeper problems in society. Due to everything I have seen not only from football but other parts of society it is necessary to fight for self ownership of companies by their employees. I often see the fight between government vs private industries but footall has shown the successes of fan-owned teams and there are other examples of cooperatives in society which have a similar idea behind them. I've decided for some time now to not only protest but to vote for politicians that favor this model or whose party is most likely to support ideas like that. Sadly in countries like Germany there isn't a party like the british Co-Operative party which openly supports this.
ok communist
@@alexanderbrundin7620 Thats communism?
@@DGAMINGDE ur thinking of a communist dictatorship which is horrible but the idea of communism is not a bad for businesses like if you own ur business with your employees then you change what you and uphold ur own morals but society don't like that
@@yashlind You are aware that you can't go fom capitalism to communism in one step?
@@DGAMINGDE no it's not communism it co-operativism which is also present in Fascism
I'm starting to think that maybe the Super League wouldn't be a bad idea.
That way you could have a Champions League way more competitive without the richest of the riches in football.
Basically Europa League level teams🤣
I think Super League will happen eventually. Every single step towards favouring big teams (such as two teams getting into the CL by having good previous seasons) keeps the momentum which gives those teams (and their owners) more power. Stopping at any point means a breakaway super league, continuing the momentum leads to a CL super league. It's inevitable, I'm afraid.
If just few teams (or leagues) breakaway, it'd make CL really interesting, though. Take away English, German, Spanish, Italian and French teams (+ Ajax) and you have a fairly unpredictable competition. I mean, who would take the crown there? RB Salzburg? AIK? Standard Liege? Sheriff Tiraspol? Hajduk Split? Anything's possible. (Alright, Benfica would have the best chances there, but it'd still be far less predictable than it is now.)
@@liborkundrat185 go watch the conference league if you won't teams that nobody cares about to win
The Glazers are gonna love the new Champions League format
They love going for anything that's immoral
They don't really benefit from it, its uefa just doing the superleage idea with extra steps to line their pockets.
12:50 You know, a FIFA World League modeled after the Nations League fashion that UEFA started may give them the "One WC every two years" feel... As someone from Argentina, whose national league is in shambles due to constant expansions motivated by two big teams getting relegated in the past... both the CL and the WC constant expansions are old news that might end up decreasing the level of the competitions, as it happened to our league. Let sports be sports and not a popularity contest.
Well said.. The Big Clubs are pushing and pressuring UEFA into this, UEFA needs a massive rebuild and needs to stand strong.
When they try and resist thr big clubs threaten to leave. Guaranteed after 2 seasons they will pressure to up the clubs who auto qualify on the coefficient ranking.. then try and uplift it every couple of seasons
None of this has anything to do with big clubs. There has been a mentality of making Europe into a United States for decades.
Sports is just one route to that endeavor. No grand conspiracy it is what certain people want. They even have a European anthem.
@@bighands69 Well it is to do with big clubs, and commercialisation.. Many owned by Americans too in fact.
They want to monetise competition to the fullest and protect their income by excluding the potential for getting knocked out / relagation / not qualifying..
They have been pressuring UEFA on Champions League rules for over a decade. UEFA should be the ruling body that keeps competition fair and keeps integrity in the game..
UEFA is corrupt too.. but it needs an overhaul and needs to be given the support of all other clubs.
My big fear with the Swiss system is that smaller clubs will play smaller clubs and big clubs will play big clubs. Who knows how the algorithm will actually work, but qualifying for the CL might feel a lot less special if it doesn't guarantee games against the likes of Real, Bayern, etc.
Also, will fans be fine with fixtures being determined by a complicated algorithm rather than a simple one-time draw into groups?
I'm actually more worried about the opposite, big clubs only playing small clubs to basically guarantee the final 16 will only be teams from the top 6 countries.
This might be the best video you made so far, from the political commentary which is always welcome if the person knows what they're talking about and if their heart is in the right place, to the ideas you laid out at the end. Must say I was a bit shocked at how direct and specific the commentary was, loved it
22:50 I would actually make it a bit different
I would have all 53 Uefa countries being eligible to send their 1 winning team from their domestic league into some kind of qualifiers for the champions league , of which 32 teams would make the cut into the final stage that will have the format we have had until 2023 ... 8 groups of 4 with the top of each group go to the knockouts , and the 3rd place team goes to the knockout stage for the Europa league
Speaking of , for the Europa league it will be the 53 winners of each domestic cup of all Uefa nations that get into the qualifiers , and for clubs that have won a double in their nation, the place is then given to either the runner-up of the league or the cup, who do a play-off , winner goes to the Europa league , loser goes to the Conference league , if the same team finishes runner-up in both their nation's league and cup, the conference league qualifier spot goes to the 3rd place league team
The 53 teams qualify for 32 spots for the Europa league , and the 53-32 = 21 teams that failed to qualify for the Champions league plus the 21 teams that failed to qualify for the Europa , plus the 21 teams that either lost the play-off i mentioned before or got 3rd place in their league , all play qualifiers for the 32 spots of the Conference league, having 63 teams fighting for the chance to enter , would surely increase the value of the Conference league
Thats my idea , all nations get their chance , and no-one gets a direct spot on the champions league
And sure , this means that "worse" teams might slip through the champions league , while teams that just finished 2nd or 3rd in the big 5 leagues have to play qualifiers for the conference league... I think this system is not only fair , but it would actually increase the value of all 3 Competitions (Champions , Europa , Conference) collectively even if it might dillute the value of the Champion's league on it's own
Like most sports, football peaked in the 80s to early 2000s and had been going downhill on the money train ever since
I mean atleast hockey is still fine tho i doubt that lasts
At a time when there's already too many competitive club fixtures each season, UEFA in their infinite wisdom has taken it upon themselves to add a few more.
The levels of greed are only outdone by that of sheer stupidity.
Qualify for the Champions league, get knocked out, go into the UEFA Cup and win it! What a joke UEFA have made of European football!!!
I'd have to say your assessment is very well thought through and the use of Boeing as an example of killing the golden goose is a very good one.
It's been a pleasure to listen to you. Thanks.
The FA cup in my home country uses the similar system as what you proposed, maybe because there are only 4 tiers from the top flight to the amateur league. Teams from all tiers except the top one can enter the qualification round, and then in the first round, the top tier teams join. Every team can either play home or away regardless of their league positions. (However, some amateur league teams might need to find a local ground to play because they normally don't have one. There are some times the amateur league teams offer to travel instead of playing home, depending on how the two teams and the FA negotiate.) The format offers a good chance for small amateur clubs to play with top-tier ones, although it might produce some one-sided score lines like 12-0, 18-0, or 1-22 (yes, there are all real score lines).
In the 1993-94 season, Turkish champions Galatasaray eliminated Mancheser United with a 3-3 tie in England and 0-0 home. Still one of the most glorious moments in Turkish football history and everybody who lived through it remembers it down to the smallest details. Even the words the commentator used to describe Arif Erdem's goal during the first match - şımaykıl değil bütün maykıllar (not just Schmeichel, bring all the Michaels and even they can't save that goal) - are now part of the Turkish football legendarium.
This should be allowed to happen much more often.
UEFA already ruined the Europeans cups in 1992 when they created the Champions League. And later when they included 4th placed teams there, cancelled Cup Winners Cup and turned UEFA cup into a monster with more than 100 teams
Something the youngest fans (i.e early 20's) will be unlikely to understand unless they appreciate the history of football. Doubly so if they support either the Old Firm or a wealthy English team.
Love All the points You made especially at the End showing what happens when PROFITS are the primary goal.(😁)
I'd like to add that match "Fauxing" is a Great Concern; and it's reared up quite a bit since lockdowns and Empty Stadiums! ✌️😎
Champions from each league should be in straight away rather than having to qualify when teams in England, Spain, Germany, Italy and France have teams that finish 3rd and 4th play one qualifier and then into the group stage
Love your videos Alfie, always so informative and interesting. Much obliged for the work you do : )
This was epic!!! Juxtaposing finance to the game itself from start to finish. I remember discussing the failed Super League Plans and how this was a 'they beat us at our own game' thing for UEFA. If it wasn't for the fans reacting the end result is highly questionable. Careful on nostalgia though, I believe a breakthrough is much needed and things cannot really go back. Greece, where I come from, has had one of the most corrupt football leagues since the dawn of time. For the past decade the authorities have been reforming the game every other year, constantly degrading their own product. I guess there is a point in the the past when corruption was first introduced institutionally, mirroring wider social corruption, thus engulfing the Game itself. Nostalgia would therefore in our case - the Greek case - refer to an imaginary rahter than imagined and bygone status. Can't resist thinking that this may be the case for most of the leagues apart for Europe's top 5 or 6 and the MLS probably. Perhaps initiatives of fans to progress football via equalization of opportunities and transparency of ownership, along with viable control from within and below. Oh no, that is social conflict wearing team jerseys!
Who’s here after the UEFA Champions League has officially changed format to league stages?
All world teams playing in a group stage, with the actual knockout stage afterwards being the genuine World Cup would be ridiculously entertaining
Great video. Comrade Alfie came out at the end there.
They ruined it years ago when they let teams other than champions to enter.
How can they call it champions league when barely a third of the teams are actual champions?
Agreed, and if Tottenham won in 2019, we would have European Champion than havent wont domestic title since 1961
I don't often bother to comment on a youtube video but what Alfie is saying here is pretty much spot on. It's sad to see this happen to football, and even sadder knowing there is no way we can change it. Another truth that is almost as terrible is how even when we try to make these competitions random to a fair degree, the big clubs are already so far ahead that they tend to win anyway. Since the start of the 2013/14 season, only one club outside the big 6 has won the FA Cup or the League Cup (Leicester having won the FA Cup last season).
It was ruined when they introduced seeds. should be a straight knockout, with only the league champions and cup holders qualifying.
It was ruined when they let teams partake that had not won their league. ManU would never have done the treble in '99, as Arsenal won the league the previous season. The teams that win the Champions League are not necessarily the best team in Europe, as Liverpool picked up two cups before they were the best team in the country.
Why should the coppa italia winners be given a champions league spot when the top 8 from last season get a bye into the last 16?
@@danhoppy5517 Actually thats what unique about UCL. League runner up teams beating league champions. Chelsea beat Man City, Milan beat Juve, and many other instances. People often thought league champions should be favorites against league runner up but end up losing in their most important matches.
@@vinhbao9738
Agree. Why fixate on the term "champion"? 3rd position in certain league is better than the champion of some other league anyway, so it's not like you get a better quality by making champion league all about the champions.
Besides if it's only for champions we're more likely to get the same team over and over every year, as many leagues are dominated by the same clubs nowadays. That will widen the gap between these teams and the rest of the teams in their respective league even more.
Another banger of a video from our boy Alfredo. But my preferred champions league reform would be more of a league format where more teams play each other home and away and the top four finishers are the semi finalists who play off home and away to decide the finalists. And to accommodate the extra games participating teams will be excused from domestic cup competitions
It’s pure favouritism over merit. It is super league through the back door
Sneaky Basterds!
Everyone should watch this, football fan or not.
This is happening to EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE... Profit is put before everything these days...even healthcare.
Well done for putting this out Alfie!!
I actually think the 3 tier European competition we currently have works really well.
Got your top boys in the UCL. your good clubs In Europa, and up and coming teams in the conference league
Only they should cut Champions League for just champions and second placed, rest in Europa League and cup winners in third competition. That was best system
@@worlddd7777 or have the champions league with the defending champion and Best team from each country, the Europa with the second tier and the conference with the third tier 🙂
Absolutely spot on analysis. The new CL format really is just a watered down version of the super league.
Uefa ia the worst thing ever happened to football
They are greed Incarnated
Question: Maybe I missed out on something here, but under the new swiss teams with 10 rounds before the play-offs, will all the 10 games be pre-determined before the first game, or will they use an actual swiss system? That is, they will draw the next games after each round, matching teams with the same number of points. Just like that is done in chess and many card games. If all 10 games are pre-determined, then I think it is absolutely trash.
Finally someone who understands that this is not an actual Swiss format!
Due to scheduling, it wouldn't make any sense to have the Swiss system (unpredictable travel and so on) so all ten games are pre-determined. The reason they call it the Swiss system is only because:
- everyone gets to play the same amount of games
- no team plays any other team more than once
- the final standings is one big table
However, since the games are predetermined, you can easily get (and you will likely get) a team with over twenty points to play a team with single-digit points on the last gameday. Basically, nothing like the Swiss system you're used to seeing in chess, esports, etc.
@@liborkundrat185 Thank you for the reply. While I understand the reasoning wrt travel ect. I find it a real problem not using an actual Swiss system. With the pre-determined games, we basically get the same with seeding as before, just hidden away a little more. I find that the actual swiss system would be more fair, but it seems safe to say that that is not what they are going for xD
@@SteffensClassroom Yeah, actual Swiss system doesn't really work when the games aren't played in a single venue at the same time.
I'm mad that that they'll go with 10 games instead of 8, efficiently killing the only advantage this new system. In the current system, a pot 1 team plays a pot 2 team twice, a pot 3 team twice and a pot 4 team twice. The original idea of the new system was that you'd play the same amount of games/teams from every pot. So ultimately it'd only add 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 games - all competitive matchups in theory. But they'll ignore the balance, since they want 10 games. Which suuuuuuuuuucks.
@@liborkundrat185 Yep. So many things suck about this. Also had it been true Swiss they actually only had to play 6 rounds with 36 teams. 10 games is just to make more money, simple -.-
Great video. One little addition I'd like to make: the main culprit in all of these decisions is what you could call the management consultant mindset. The owners of these enterprises certainly want to squeeze as much cash out of them as they can, but it is the management consultant mindset that allows them to do so, and moreover allows them to do so with a good conscience, believing that's what every other rational business own would do. Without the contribution of management consultant mindset none of these things would happen, or not as effectively. In every instance in which the consumer is completely shafted, in general, you can be sure that there is usually some HBS trained, management consultant team behind it. For US residents, think of Spirit Airways, who have achieved such innovation in the field of shoddiness and shafting consumers-this is an airline completely designed my management consultants. The list goes on and on. The fact that Americans couldn't get Covid tests for the first 6+ months of the pandemic (because there were no stockpiles of PPE, and because the supply chains for such goods had been totally internationalized)-yep, management consultants again. Their influence on the US healthcare industry has been perhaps the most damaging. This may appear to be an odd tangent, but it's difficult to understand the way these things work without talking about the pervasive influence of the management consultant mindset. Otherwise you're stuck looking at things in terms of the individual owner's greed, which is only part of the story. Anyway great video
Spot on! The management consultants are just a class of upper middle management who can squeeze a bunch of money out for themselves while still providing those above them (i.e. the executives who hired the consultants) to make EVEN more. As Don Draper so eloquently put it in Mad Men when his company looks like it will change hands again and again, “who the hell is in charge, a bunch of accountants trying to make a dollar into a dollar ten? I want to build something of my own”
It was ruined when it stopped being called the European cup and stopped being a competition for the champions of each country and became all about money. This is just the next step, surprised it’s taken this long.
I've had an idea for a format for a long time now which I think I'd share, which will give interest at each stage of the competition. A downside is a large number of fixtures across the competition but I think its good to have more teams in Europe and this also means smaller teams can have bigger opponents, like the FA Cup.
No qualifiers but 256 teams enter one large European Cup format. This will mean the entire top tier of teams enter for a few higher ranked nations i.e the whole Bundesliga from the season previous qualifies.
Have 4 two legged knockout rounds as follows, done on aggregate.
Round 1 :128 teams qualify, top 32/256 teams seeded
Round 2 64 teams qualify, top 24/128 seeds
Round 3 32 teams quality, 16/64 seeded
Round 4 16 teams qualify, 4/32 seeded (more jeopardy).
Then a 3 game round robin with 16 teams split into 4 groups with seeded pots. Games would take place in a mini tournament on neutral ground mid season (February). Fixtures arranged so all matches apart from clashing final group games are televised in a unique slot.
Top 2 from each group qualify to single leg knockouts which are on neutral ground and at the same host nation as the final itself. (May)
BRO ITS JUS TCASUE THEY WILL GET MORE MONE YCASUE EXTRA 100 MATCHES
This idea actually look good if you are football fan but the issue is FIFA will get money from these extra 100 matches
Also how do team qualified? And what happen if team lose the first 3 rounds? Will they been eliminated completely from European tournament?
@@luuduonghy659 Yeah, if you lose the first knockout rounds then you are out for the season. Seeding to balance jeopardy with make sure larger teams don't crash out too soon. (before December)
In terms of extra matches and money I was thinking that by having more teams enter and a round Robin tournament UEFA could monetise that. Teams might miss a small number of gate reciepts.
Teams would qualify straight from league placings - i.e 20 teams from England which would be all PL teams, say 10 teams from a league like Poland and Scotland, 5 teams from Ireland
@@tourmaline07 This will be unfair to the losing team in first 3 qualifying round. Best solution is transfer them to UEFA Europa League in third qualifying round
@@luuduonghy659 don't majorly like the idea of a secondary competition for teams who lose out in the first rounds tbh but one might need to be setup to give the teams fixtures
Why did you say that playoff losers go to the Europa League? Where did you get that (wrong) information?
Day 5: Completely irrelevant to the topic of this video, but considering that the last player who played in the miracle of Bern died about 4 months ago, I would really like to see a video about the whole story between Germany and Hungary, especially because it meant so much to at least the German population
If he did a video Where he Really went into what happened at Bern in that final, I dont think German people would like it Very much
@@botondszalai77 Why? Only because of the myth (which is admittingly pretty likely) that the German team was doping, which was somewhat normal at the time? All elder people I talked about that who witnessed that win in some shape of form didn't care, they were just proud that our country meant sth again
Hi Alfie, i have one question about the new format, how will the 10 games be decided from a 36 group team ?
For the future World Cup Competitions....
Seeing your own Nation play (mostly over the summer holidays) is an amazing bring your family/friends together spectacle. Having more Nations involved is a great idea I'm all for it.
my favorite video to date. keep up the great work alfie
Also, adding teams to the Euros and World cup doesn't reduce unpredictability - without that we probably wouldn't have had Iceland, Croatia, Switzerland making surprising long runs. For every Italy getting a lifeline, there'd also be a North Macedonia or Wales.
yes personally i think it's a great thing. I mean the World Cup was 16 teams, back when there were less countries right? So it's natural to have more slots, when there is more existing countries. Hey, that's my two pennies.
@@arkannaufal29n And I think the playing level of teams outside Europe and South America has increased over the past 3 decades. African teams for example have come a long way from being just a filler to giving established teams a run for their money. Everyone was shocked when at the 2002 World Cup a debuting Senegal threw the bombshell on the opening game no less by beating the reigning champions France. The Senegalese went on to have a really deep run by reaching the 1/4 Finals. What about Ghana, who were one penalty away (courtesy of perenial villain Luis Suarez) from reaching the Final Four in South Africa. In that same World Cup in South Africa, New Zealand (ranked 78th, one of the worst ranked nations) though didn't pass the Group Stage, they were undefeated throughout their 3 matches against Slovakia, Italy and Paraguay. 4 years later in Brazil Costa Rica managed to be the best nation from the CONCACAF zone by reaching the 1/4 Finals only losing to the Netherlands on penalty shoot-out. And let's not forget South Korea's run (albeit controversial due to clunky officiating) in 2002.
A banger of a video yet again Alfie.You're one of the few media outlets who say the truth about the direction football is going.Major companies like BT, Sky, CNN and of course the big clubs don't give a damn as long as these changes don't hurt their pockets.Keep the great journalism going!!
Don't be daft, the Champions League was never prestigious. Not when it can be won with money by only a handful. It lowers the prestige of European football. Gone are the days of Red Star Belgrade, Steaua Bucharest, Nottingham Forest or Gothenburg challenging for European Cups and instead it's about 5-6 English teams plus Barca and Madrid.
Perfectly said
22:05 Someone PLEASE simulate this on FM!!
Please make a video on the disgraceful actions by the Senegalese fans against Egyptian players, such as thousands of lasers, throwing stones and bottles at players and staff, and signs with obscenity directed to Egyptian players.
I think there should also be a video on the anglophobia that has spread through football in recent years, since noone is talking about it yet it just continues to be accepted despite being plainly wrong
Once in the past I've heard the quote :
"if it's ain't broken, don't fix it."
But now They (uefa) just simply ignore that shit
The weaker teams having to play an extra play off to move on is unfair to them, while better sides can rest.
In theory but weaker don't really expect to move on but they welcome the income from more games
@@whatudoin1 Half the teams playing play off would move on, though. And then they meet teams that has played less
It was already ruined! It should have been ONLY for champions of their respective league!
Should we continue with fake Man. City, PSG, etc. ridiculous budgets? While now is like 90% of Italy, Spain, UK, France and Germany leagues. They have destroyed the hole game because of the money. The beauty of this sport was that always it was surprises and underdogs. When was the last time a team from a championship outside the big five was win the UCL or lately even Europa League trophy? Or team from Easter/Central Europe or Scandinavia did it?
Its disgusting what is going on but even more disgusting is the reaction of the fans of this clubs (City, Chelsea, PSG, Real, Barcelona, Milan, Juventus, Bayern etc.) that they are agree that this teams already are winning every time the UCL and they say its ok, I don't even need to watch UCL as is already clear that one of this clubs from this big 5 leagues will win it every time. UCL should have been as it was: no grups, just straight knock-outs only between the Champions of their respective league.
UEFA mafia!
I really hope the World Cup doesn't expand to 64 teams...
your content is excellent, good job
Well thats neoliberalism for you
Very good video Alfie. Keep them coming
Best German players in the premier league of all time. (Day 298)
I will not give up until the video is made or Alfie himself tells me to stop. Everyone else telling me that will be ignored.
If you don't believe my number, just go back to the previous videos. I'm at the bottom most of the time, but I'm there.
You've got to admire the dedication
It is basically the Europa super league, but with playoff games added to it and clubs still getting to play football on there own leagues
The reason why the World Cup seeds are getting increased is because continents like Africa and Asia , Africa and Asia are the biggest continents in the world but have the lowest seeds slots in the World Cup while Europe has 13 the new expansion is to bring a larger number of countries that have a little slots to the World Cup
Well said. We are in an era where the SILVER DOLLAR is everything. Hope it runs in cycles and in the future will return to some sensibility. Unfortunately we live in a world where the goalposts are constantly moved to accommodate people/clubs/companies/governments who's only goal is to profit. I am over twice your age and over the past 10/15 years have realised this dominance, of the hierarchy, so hats off to you. Great video with far reaching points, keep up the great work and insight.
Not sure I'm on board with returning to full-knockout format, but I've had same thoughts about now format. And on "goosification" of virtually everything...
HITC Sevens, good work, thank you. What is your source?
hey alfie im not sure if you know but in the last few days uefa confirmed theyre no longer interested in saving two slots for teams that missed out but have low coefficients
Make a vid about championship play offs or just Luton town
Best video yet. Heard it hear first. Coming from a chartered accountant and external auditor.
Thanks Alfie for doing this video
Fully agree! Don’t fix something thats not broken! 👍🏼
The problem is that some clubs are much more popular than others.just like man United have much much more popularity around the world than west ham. And fans of man utd will want to see their team in ucl even if they deserve it or not.
alfie m8, i ve got a really interesting idea for a vid. how about a look a jimmy glass goal for carlise in the 99 season. a goal scored by a keeper that saved carlise from relegation and doom and that killed scarbrough the team that went down.
the only hitc videos i wait for
This is a bloody good video, Alfie!
Your idea for the Champions League at the end of the video is something I would love to see at the world cup with all the nations involved
Great Video. But (11:20) I dont think Italy would have qualified if the tournament had 48 places this year. Since UEFA will get 3 additional places, I would assume the change in qualification will be that they will scrap the play off finals and all winners of this years semi finals would be qualified.
This is the Super League by the backdoor door...Excellent video BTW.
Fully agree with your proposed format Alfie. Chaos being a ladder and all we could get some very interesting winners that way.
Have you considered making a video on the recent success of the Peruvian national team?? They are massively over-performing by qualifying twice ahead of teams full of stars playing in europe’s top leagues when their own players are scattered around the world in leagues like the Saudi league, MLS and Swedish league.