Good luck Liverpool.

Osku · Post by **Osku** » Thu May 26, 2005 10:58 pm

Old Europe Cup was completely different competition.

If I remember right some teams got straight to second round.

Ozz wrote:-First 16 don't need to play the qualifying rounds and they get directly to the group stage.
-Teams from places 17-32 are seeded in third qualifying stage.
-Next 20 or so are seeded in second qualifying round, etc.
As far as I know, Fenerbahce Stambul, winner of Turkish league, is currently 16th in this ranking. So they can start Champions League at group stage. But, if Liverpool is allowed to participate, then as a CL winer 'pool is automatically placed at the top of the ranking, thus Fenerbahce is pushed down to 17th, and into third qualifying round. Before yesterday's match Fenerbahce fans were shown and they hoped AC Milan would win so their team could play in CL's group stage for sure.

Plus "Regulations of the UEFA Champion League 2004/05"
http://www.uefa.com/newsfiles/19071.pdf

With logic it'd be like this.

1st qualifying round 32 teams
->16 through + 16 teams seeded to 2nd qualifying round
2nd qualifying round
-> 16 through + 16 teams seeded to 3rd qualifying round
3rd qualifying round
-> 16 winning teams to Champions League and 16 losing teams to UEFA Cup (yes?)

16 teams from the knock-out rounds + 16 straight qualified teams
-> 32 teams in CL.

Problems that come to mind right away.
-Someone is pushed from the 1st qualification round.
-Where to put Liverpool? Straight qualification, who's left out? Fenerbache, English team?
-Possibility of 5 English teams in CL? -> long term effect on land ranking?

Obfleur · Post by **Obfleur** » Fri May 27, 2005 2:19 pm

How do you feel about games being deicided with penalties?

I would love to see 'never ending goalden goal' (at least in the final).
This would force both teams to try and score - instead of just holding on an hoping to win it on penalties.

On the other hand this could mean that games could go on forever.
But hey...

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Fri May 27, 2005 2:26 pm

G14 are weighing in now. According to them, if any country other than Spain, England or Italy had this situation, UEFA would give them an extra slot. The problem doesn't seem to be accomodating one more team, but rather they have a rule where the maximum a country can have is 4.

So if, say, a Swedish team were in the same boat, UEFA would just give them an extra slot.

Quite how true that is, I don't know.

Penalties? I don't have an issue with them... but the idea of "next goal wins" is always fun. Make the [composite word including 'f*ck'] run till their legs drop off!

Post by **Best First** » Fri May 27, 2005 2:37 pm

why do we and the others get 4?

Is it becasue we supposedly have the best leagues?

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Fri May 27, 2005 2:42 pm

I think it's based on "UEFA coefficients" which is the points system used to rank the leagues. Calculated by how well each country's representatives do in the competition each year - the top three nations get four slots.

So if all the English clubs got knocked out in the group stages this year, we'd probably have lost a slot because we would have dropped out of the top three.

Ozz · Post by **Ozz** » Fri May 27, 2005 2:45 pm

Best First wrote:Is it becasue we supposedly have the best leagues?

It's because England, Spain and Italy are in the top three of UEFA's ranking. It's about performances in CL and UEFA Cup in last five years. Details should be in that link Osku posted.

I heard couple of years ago, that in case of draw instead of penalties winner would be decided in series of corners. I think I'd prefered it that way.

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Fri May 27, 2005 3:38 pm

Ozz wrote:in case of draw instead of penalties winner would be decided in series of corners.

Eh? How does that work then? Trying to score direct from a corner, or are they meant to pack the box with players and see if they can score? When does the play stop? When it hits the ground or when the goalie catches it, then they swap over? Five goes each? Eh?

May as well just play headers and volleys.

The US have an interesting thing, iirc. It's like the pen shootouts, but the ball starts at the halfway line and the forward gets a one-on-one with the goalie.

Ozz · Post by **Ozz** » Fri May 27, 2005 3:53 pm

Brendocon wrote:Eh? How does that work then? Trying to score direct from a corner, or are they meant to pack the box with players and see if they can score? When does the play stop? When it hits the ground or when the goalie catches it, then they swap over? Five goes each? Eh?

May as well just play headers and volleys.

It was only proposed and I don't remember there being any details. I recall it was said it would be "a team against team" instead of "man against man" as it is with penalties, so I suppose there would be cross from corner and play would stop when ball leaves the penalty box, goalie catches it, or goal is scored.

Interesting concept, methinks.

Brendocon wrote:The US have an interesting thing, iirc. It's like the pen shootouts, but the ball starts at the halfway line and the forward gets a one-on-one with the goalie.

Yeah, they took it from hockey.

Jetfire · Post by **Jetfire** » Fri May 27, 2005 6:14 pm

Best First wrote:why do we and the others get 4?

Is it becasue we supposedly have the best leagues?

Yup. A few years ago we stole that 4th place spot from germany (Who went down to 2 or 3) due to our generally solid performances in europe.

It's possible if we had a propper s### few seasons in europe (or if Italy or Spain did) then we would lose that 4th spot.