Liverpool European Champions

thanks

 

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What's strange about this "Champions League" is that it does not purely consist of champions.

It used to be a league where the national champions of the different european championships play, but now the bigger leagues(like England, Spain, Italy,Germany, France) can send not only their champion but also teams that reached 2nd, or 3rd place, whereas champions of smaller leagues are not sure to be present.

So not really a "champions" league....

Btw, will Liverpool be allowed to take part in next years champions league?
I think they only are 5th or 6th in the premier league, aren't they?

 

What's strange about this "Champions League" is that it does not purely consist of champions.

It used to be a league where the national champions of the different european championships play, but now the bigger leagues(like England, Spain, Italy,Germany, France) can send not only their champion but also teams that reached 2nd, or 3rd place, whereas champions of smaller leagues are not sure to be present.

So not really a "champions" league....

Btw, will Liverpool be allowed to take part in next years champions league?
I think they only are 5th or 6th in the premier league, aren't they?[/quote]][/quote]

I think the whole competition has turned into a joke since they let in teams who arn't actualy champions. We now have a 'Champions' League where most of the teams competing in it are not champions of anywhere, indeed neither of the two recent English winners (Manchester United in 99 and Liverpool this year were champions of England)

Liverpool do not have a place in next years tournament after only finnishing 5th in the Premiership, but that might change as apparently UEFA may discuss it at their meeting in a few weeks time. Personaly I hope they get in because it might let Manchester City slip into the UEFA cup

 

Ok, a few points.

Surely one could count the top 3 teams in a given country as 'champions'?

Liverpool really did not deserve the win (sorry scousers) - they got walked on in the first half, and were only equal in the second. they just got lucky.

I have a nasty feeling that UEFA will bend the rules to make sure that the cupholders will be allowed to defend their title... :angry:

 

and why shouldnt they be allowed to defend their title???

 

Because they failed to do so in the qualifications, that is to say, in the championships Liverpool just won, apparently. This is a phenomenon very common in Dutch speed skating: they will always find a way to let last year's champion defend his title, even if there's nothing he's done in the past season to deserve such a chance.

 

yes i do know that.

they finished 5th in the premier league and only the top 4 qualify for the champions lge for next season.

however in 2000 when real madrid won the champions lge they also failed to qualify by not finishing high enough in la liga...but were allowed to defend the trophy...so in that sense a precedent has already been set.

Also in the old european cup competiton before it became the champions league only the champions of each country took part. But if you won the competion the team was allowed to defend the trophy regardless of where they finished in their home league.

therefore it has happened in the past and should be allowed to happen again.

 

True, but what happened there was not very fair tough.

Real Madrid were 4th or 5th in the Primera Division, and the spanish football federation decided that the team ahead of Real Madrid (Zaragoza ??)would not be allowed to go to the Champions League, so Real could go.

No country has the right to have more than 4 teams in the champions league, so the english federation would to have to tell one of the teams ahead of Liverpool to go to the UEFA cup....

 

I would say that winning the tournament should earn you the chance. It certainly always used to - in all three major European tournaments the holders also won the right to compete the following season regardless of how they performed in their own national competitions. Why they changed it is, to me at least, a mystery.

 

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Good question.
Even in world cup and european nations cup, the holders must now qualify themselves.

 

yes but you are given a chance in the world cup etc in a preliminary qualifications campaign,which are what are being played right now.

in essence Liverpool would not even be given that chance!

lets be honest if u are tromso from the faroe islands who would you rather have the chance to play in the qualifcation phase..some team from moldova or the reigning european champions!!

 

As I support Liverpool, I have nothing but respect for their victory, and hope that they will be able to enter next season's tournament.
However, I do see how it could be considered unfair if they were to be entered, in spite of not reaching at least fourth in the Premier League.

BTW Don't the host nation of a world/european cup automatically qualify?

 

i still think that by winning the champions league..liverpool are effectively the champions of europe..so by that fact alone being champions should mean they take part in the "champions league" otherwise it makes a mockery of the whole champions league tournament!!