Alternative name for the 'Champions' League thread

[elliottwolf]

European Cup Winners Cup

Going old school

scrapped after the mighty redmen of liverpool chose not to validate it by winning it.

maybe they should bring it back so chelsea could hold aloft a mickey mouse european cup to go with their mickey mouse league cup.

 

[pinched_nerve]

I'm sure there are, with league winners of those nations going into the UEFA Cup instead.

Might be wrong, but I don't think any are excluded, even the Welsh league champions get entry, albeit in the earliest qualifying rounds where they get a couple of hammerings from a Lithuanian or Latvian team.

 

[elliottwolf]

Might be wrong, but I don't think any are excluded, even the Welsh league champions get entry, albeit in the earliest qualifying rounds where they get a couple of hammerings from a Lithuanian or Latvian team.

thats right, we played the mighty TNS of Wales in the first preliminary round in 2005/06.

 

[bigbry]

I don't regard it as a competition any more, just an exhibition event where the same teams compete every season and I thus try to boycott any exposure to it. It reached the summit of mount ridiculous a couple of years ago when they changed the rules ad hoc to allow Liverpool to compete.

I know where you're coming from but it's the rules at the time and/or the national qualification rules that were wrong. I think in any cup competition the winners should be allowed to defend their trophy - FIFA have stopped the automatic right of the World Cup winners to enter. In a competition that you have to qualify for like World Cup, Champion League, European Nations Cup, etc. the winners should be guaranteed their place in the next competition.

Snooker do it with the World Championship - a few years ago the reigning world champion (can't remember who it was but it's not very long ago) was ranked lower than 32 (automatic qulification) and the player ranked 32 had to drop out of automatic qualification and go through the pre- tournament qualification to make way for the reigning champion

 

[stavros]

I know where you're coming from but it's the rules at the time and/or the national qualification rules that were wrong. I think in any cup competition the winners should be allowed to defend their trophy - FIFA have stopped the automatic right of the World Cup winners to enter. In a competition that you have to qualify for like World Cup, Champion League, European Nations Cup, etc. the winners should be guaranteed their place in the next competition.

But the point of stupidity is magnified by the fact that Liverpool didn't win the league in 03/04, and so can't have had any right to call themselves the best team in Europe.

Ultimately and ideally I see the quest to find Europe's best team as a two-season, two-format competition, whereby a team first proves themselves the best in a domestic league format by actually winning it, and then the following season takes on exclusively other champions in a straight two-legged knock-out. That way they've shown themselves to be the best in both competitive formats.

Oh and bring back the Cup Winners' Cup.

 

[Ich bin ein Mod]

Might be wrong, but I don't think any are excluded, even the Welsh league champions get entry, albeit in the earliest qualifying rounds where they get a couple of hammerings from a Lithuanian or Latvian team.

I must be out of date then, as I'm certain a couple of seasons ago champions ofcountries such as Latvia and Estonia going into the UEFA Cup

 

[Anspaugh]

The Rumbelows European Cup

or

The Anglo-Italian-Franco-German-Austrian-Spanish-Dutch-Scottish-Portuguese-Belgian-Israeli-Russian-Welsh-Latvian Cup

 

[isvicthere?]

Now that a team who have not only last won their own domestic league in 17(!) years, but have not even been in contention since then, have now made the final for the second time in three years, its time to find another name.

It's interesting that when it WAS champions (and last year's winner) only, it didn't have the word "champion" in it. It's a bit like the US calling whatever it is they play (but no-one else does) the "world series".

 

[stavros]

Whilst I agree with the point about the world series, it should be recognised that there are Canadian teams in the Major Leagues, and players do come from all over the world, North, South and Central America, Europe and Pacific Asia.

 

[revol68]

Whilst I agree with the point about the world series, it should be recognised that there are Canadian teams in the Major Leagues, and players do come from all over the world, North, South and Central America, Europe and Pacific Asia.

Kinda like the English leagues with Welsh teams and players from all over the world?

 

[stavros]

Well yes, but some speak of it as if it's a purely American trait which is untrue.

Plus England did refuse to enter the first three World Cups because they thought they didn't need to prove they were the best.

 

[revol68]

Well yes, but some speak of it as if it's a purely American trait which is untrue.

Plus England did refuse to enter the first three World Cups because they thought they didn't need to prove they were the best.

now they shouldn't even bother entering to show they are shite.

 

[stavros]

Too true.

 

[isvicthere?]

Whilst I agree with the point about the world series, it should be recognised that there are Canadian teams in the Major Leagues, and players do come from all over the world, North, South and Central America, Europe and Pacific Asia.

So the US and a couple of Canadian teams? That's still not "the world", is it? If the origin of players counts (rather than the location of the team - surely an absurd notion)) then the Premiership, La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga would all qualify WELL ahead of any septic only-played-in-one-or-two-countries sport as the "world" league.

 

[stavros]

WELL ahead of any septic only-played-in-one-or-two-countries sport as the "world" league.

First of all, I agreed that the World Series is an inaccurate name. Secondly, it's hardly "one or two countries"; more like North America, the whole of the Latin America and very large chunks of eastern Asia. I think the use of the words "World Cup" when talking about Rugby and especially cricket are far worse.