Cup winners to win Champions League place?
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Cup winners to win Champions League place?
UEFA have confirmed they will consider awarding a place in the Champions League to the winners of the FA Cup from 2009.
Under sweeping changes suggested for Europe's elite club competition, the proposal - mooted at UEFA's European club forum - could see the winner of each country's main knockout tournament included in a new end-of-season play-off system or even granted an automatic Champions League berth.
William Gaillard, UEFA's communications director, told the Guardian: 'A number of clubs have expressed an interest in this situation.
'We are not against it in principle and if this is the view of the majority there is no reason why we shouldn't do it. The clubs that we have heard from have responded quite favourably.'
Gaillard said that although discussions had so far been informal, interest had been strongest from 'a very large German club, a Spanish club and a very large Scottish club', who the Guardian claims are Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Rangers respectively.
Gaillard said the idea would be put to UEFA's new strategic committee in June, which in turn would make direct recommendations to the executive committee.http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=417521&cc=%
We could see the possibility of mid/near bottom or even coca cola sides who finish runners up in the particular cup competition get a stab at champs league experience
Sounds pretty cool to see how they'll fare though.
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Someone in UEFA got read The New Paper is it?
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I thought TNP & its readers column usually gets its source from some other news feeds one?Originally posted by CoolMyth:Someone in UEFA got read The New Paper is it? -
Originally posted by chihuahua:I thought TNP & its readers column usually gets its source from some other news feeds one?
WHAT RUBBISH, READING
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,123730,00.html
HAVE you ever sat at the bus-stop and watched a bag-lady shuffle past you in the mid-morning rain?
By Iain Macintosh
24 February 2007
HAVE you ever sat at the bus-stop and watched a bag-lady shuffle past you in the mid-morning rain?
Have you looked on in horror as she mumbled incoherently at you before pressing on through the wet streets? Have you ever stopped to wonder what she wanted to be when she was a little girl?
Something must have happened to turn that woman onto the streets.
Maybe it was alcoholism, maybe it was a family that just didn't care anymore. It's difficult to tell.
For the FA Cup, it's quite easy. It was clearly Reading's fault.
The FA Cup used to be the finest cup competition in world football. It's unique because it's entirely unseeded and it's open to every single football club in England, from the lowliest village team to cash-drunk Chelsea.
For the smaller clubs, it was a shot at greatness, a chance to humiliate the big boys. For football's aristocracy it was a chance to deliver glory to the fans.
Not any more. Reading's decision to play a weakened side against Manchester United at Old Trafford has made a mockery of everything the competition was supposed to stand for.
I can just about understand a relegation-threatened side saving themselves for a dogfight, but Reading? Reading?
What on earth was the intention of playing the reserves?
They're not saving players for a relegation battle, they're not mounting a push for the title and, unless I'm seriously mistaken, they haven't been ravaged by a gruelling Champions League campaign.
Reading have been a revelation in the Premiership this season. Their squad of battle-scarred journeymen and hungry youngsters have caused the established sides all kinds of problems this season.
And Steve Coppell should be a nailed-on certainty for Manager of the Year for the work he's done there.
So why did he withdraw so many of his key players before a clash with Manchester United?
The argument is that Reading need to preserve their squad for the league.
Really? What would you rather have if you were a Reading fan - a glorious win at Old Trafford that you could wax lyrical about for years to come, or the pleasure of finishing seventh instead of ninth?
BRIEF RUN
A brief run in the pointless and uninspiring Uefa Cup or the memory of turning over one of the world's best teams on their own turf?
As it was, Reading's reserves held the league leaders to a credible draw, which rather begs the question: What could they have done with a full strength team on the pitch?
Could they have won the game? We'll never know now.
Reading's dismissal of the FA Cup is symptomatic of everything that's gone wrong with English football in recent years.
It's not just Reading, though given their safe position in the league their behaviour is the most surprising.
Scores of clubs have weakened their line-ups for the FA Cup. We've placed too much emphasis on the league and not enough on what makes sport so desperately addictive: The quest for glory.
Since when did making money become more important than actually winning something? We reward the failure of fourth place in the league with a chance to make a fortune at the cash-trough of the so-called Champions League.
The enormous and unbalanced TV revenues mean that the difference between 17th and 18th is now the difference between fiscal stability and a financial apocalypse.
When a club like Reading looks at the proudest competition in the history of club football and says, 'No thanks', it should ring out like an alarm bell throughout football.
What right do Reading have to dismiss it as a mere trinket?
There is only one way to save the FA Cup from an uncertain future, wandering about obscurely like a rain-soaked bag-lady.
Take that Champions League place away from whichever one of the super-rich Big Four that drops away from the title race and give it to the FA Cup winners.
If Reading had a chance of breaking into the European elite, do you think they'd have played their reserves?
If a place at the feeding frenzy was at stake, do you think the stadiums would be half empty for cup games?
Football can take Reading's attempted capitulation in one of two ways.
It can heed the warning and take urgent steps to sanctify a competition that was once the envy of the world. Or it can turn its face to the wall and ignore it for another year.
Don't hold your breath waiting for change. This is the English FA, after all.
# The writer is a freelancer based in the UK. He has written for many publications, including FourFourTwo, Shoot Monthly and The Irish Examiner.
Maybe this column got printed elsewhere lah. -
Probably leeched from somewhere this person read from.Originally posted by CoolMyth:http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,123730,00.html
Maybe this column got printed elsewhere lah. -
I like it .... it make the FA Cup more prestigious above it's original prestige !
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wa if a lower division wins the cup. wa then champs league
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No more mickey cup title alreadyOriginally posted by Poolman:I like it .... it make the FA Cup more prestigious above it's original prestige ! 
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Imagine if a top 4 club in EPL who has already qual wins it, means runners up gets the place manOriginally posted by anhydrouscoppersulphate:wa if a lower division wins the cup. wa then champs league -
Let's all imagine that a team like Bristol City could play Barcelona one day.
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If the reward of winning The FA Cup is a place in the UCL , then most Top-10 teams will go all their way out to win it , then those teams from the lower league can dream about it .Originally posted by anhydrouscoppersulphate:wa if a lower division wins the cup. wa then champs league -
dat one is league cup aka coca cola cup.Originally posted by chihuahua:No more mickey cup title already