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2025/26 UEFA Conference League

melbcityguy said:
Can you expand on this I'm interested
Click to expand...

The relentess expansion of the all of the European cup competion be they CL/EL/ConfL in recent years acheived several things however some context also.

* Silvio Berlusconi ( AC Milan ) first came up with the G14 group of European clubs ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-14 ) as a way to get more money out of UEFA as they felt ( and still feel ) that they are the ones doing all of the heavy lifting in terms of the massive broadcast deals due to their popularity and wanted more money.
* UEFA are essentially terrified on these clubs and the issue was never resolved properly in terms of distribution of tv monies etc.
* To this end UEFA has been relentlessly expanding this competitions and madly adding countries and leagues and expanding the number of places etc.
* The creation of the Conference League which is a massive joke as you have mid table league finishers "qualifying" for a "best of" club competition.
* This again came to a head with the massive bombshell of the European Super League announcement which came out of nowhere for UEFA. This would have doomed them as an organisation and their competitions with the big boys taking themselves out of the sanctioned UCL and doing their own thing and negotating their own deals and more importantly taking ALL of the money,
* UEFA went ballistic and launched all sorts of wild threats against the clubs and ANY player playing in this competition in collaboration with FIFA who also a threat to their own cash cow as well.
* UEFA from that point has like I've said expanded ALL of the competitions to the goal of wiping out any future Superleague or any competing cup competition by allowing every man and his fucking dog to play European "cup" competition by playing on the fact that local club competitions for many,many of the participants means that they bleed money ( like most football clubs to be honest ) and offering massive monetary inducements and prizemoney for those participants.
* UEFA is essentially by proxy keeping many clubs afloat therefore making clubs into "Cup" teams which depriotirise the leagues they play in and set themselves up strictly for European competion.
* As a club all you have to do with stay up in the league which isn't hard in a 20 team comp, you don't have to be that good or competitive however you go all in on the cup competitions and make your money that way.
 
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erogenouszone said:
The relentess expansion of the all of the European cup competion be they CL/EL/ConfL in recent years acheived several things however some context also.

* Silvio Berlusconi ( AC Milan ) first came up with the G14 group of European clubs ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-14 ) as a way to get more money out of UEFA as they felt ( and still feel ) that they are the ones doing all of the heavy lifting in terms of the massive broadcast deals due to their popularity and wanted more money.
* UEFA are essentially terrified on these clubs and the issue was never resolved properly in terms of distribution of tv monies etc.
* To this end UEFA has been relentlessly expanding this competitions and madly adding countries and leagues and expanding the number of places etc.
* The creation of the Conference League which is a massive joke as you have mid table league finishers "qualifying" for a "best of" club competition.
* This again came to a head with the massive bombshell of the European Super League announcement which came out of nowhere for UEFA. This would have doomed them as an organisation and their competitions with the big boys taking themselves out of the sanctioned UCL and doing their own thing and negotating their own deals and more importantly taking ALL of the money,
* UEFA went ballistic and launched all sorts of wild threats against the clubs and ANY player playing in this competition in collaboration with FIFA who also a threat to their own cash cow as well.
* UEFA from that point has like I've said expanded ALL of the competitions to the goal of wiping out any future Superleague or any competing cup competition by allowing every man and his fucking dog to play European "cup" competition by playing on the fact that local club competitions for many,many of the participants means that they bleed money ( like most football clubs to be honest ) and offering massive monetary inducements and prizemoney for those participants.
* UEFA is essentially by proxy keeping many clubs afloat therefore making clubs into "Cup" teams which depriotirise the leagues they play in and set themselves up strictly for European competion.
* As a club all you have to do with stay up in the league which isn't hard in a 20 team comp, you don't have to be that good or competitive however you go all in on the cup competitions and make your money that way.
Click to expand...
Your point on the conference league is nothing new. The Inter Cities Fairs cup that proceeded the UEFA Cup was set up the same way, with one exception, only one team per city could play.
 
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true Sutho though this is the times as per expanding the WC.
It de values what was built up great back in the day but now its all about the $, fear of opposition to FIFA/UEFA and reward mediocracy.
I beg to wonder what next after the Conference league one day haha
 
LFC said:
true Sutho though this is the times as per expanding the WC.
It de values what was built up great back in the day but now its all about the $, fear of opposition to FIFA/UEFA and reward mediocracy.
I beg to wonder what next after the Conference league one day haha
Click to expand...
As long as i am not around to see it.
 
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erogenouszone said:
The relentess expansion of the all of the European cup competion be they CL/EL/ConfL in recent years acheived several things however some context also.

* Silvio Berlusconi ( AC Milan ) first came up with the G14 group of European clubs ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-14 ) as a way to get more money out of UEFA as they felt ( and still feel ) that they are the ones doing all of the heavy lifting in terms of the massive broadcast deals due to their popularity and wanted more money.
* UEFA are essentially terrified on these clubs and the issue was never resolved properly in terms of distribution of tv monies etc.
* To this end UEFA has been relentlessly expanding this competitions and madly adding countries and leagues and expanding the number of places etc.
* The creation of the Conference League which is a massive joke as you have mid table league finishers "qualifying" for a "best of" club competition.
* This again came to a head with the massive bombshell of the European Super League announcement which came out of nowhere for UEFA. This would have doomed them as an organisation and their competitions with the big boys taking themselves out of the sanctioned UCL and doing their own thing and negotating their own deals and more importantly taking ALL of the money,
* UEFA went ballistic and launched all sorts of wild threats against the clubs and ANY player playing in this competition in collaboration with FIFA who also a threat to their own cash cow as well.
* UEFA from that point has like I've said expanded ALL of the competitions to the goal of wiping out any future Superleague or any competing cup competition by allowing every man and his fucking dog to play European "cup" competition by playing on the fact that local club competitions for many,many of the participants means that they bleed money ( like most football clubs to be honest ) and offering massive monetary inducements and prizemoney for those participants.
* UEFA is essentially by proxy keeping many clubs afloat therefore making clubs into "Cup" teams which depriotirise the leagues they play in and set themselves up strictly for European competion.
* As a club all you have to do with stay up in the league which isn't hard in a 20 team comp, you don't have to be that good or competitive however you go all in on the cup competitions and make your money that way.
Click to expand...
I think it should also be noted that Silvio Berlusconi wasn’t just some guy at AC Milan, he was also a media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy three times before he died in 2023.
 
There's something like 750+ top division clubs across Europe....

Get rid of rid of CL/Europa/Conference Leagues and put the 750+ all into a big FA Cup style knock out competition and see who comes out top....
 
Football us life said:
There's something like 750+ top division clubs across Europe....

Get rid of rid of CL/Europa/Conference Leagues and put the 750+ all into a big FA Cup style knock out competition and see who comes out top....
Click to expand...
I've always liked this idea. It gives a small taste of Europe and removes the overdone ground stage. More at risk more often so more drama.
 
erogenouszone said:
Like the APL that made 140 million dollars disappear, now that's corruption.
Click to expand...
Yep the above mind you are small pimps compared to the beloved Bunga Bunga great haha
Like a Packer of his beloved sport but more crooked than a road climbing a mountainside but dam that ride was fun to view from the cheap seats !
 
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erogenouszone said:
* As a club all you have to do with stay up in the league which isn't hard in a 20 team comp, you don't have to be that good or competitive however you go all in on the cup competitions and make your money that way.
Click to expand...
I don't disagree with you in principle, however Conference league is more of an incentive for 2nd and 3rd tier Euro comps to do better, you cant finish 5th in Ukraine or Bulgaria and play Euro football you need to top the league... it has SOME merit... just not for the big 5 leagues. IMHO
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
you cant finish 5th in Ukraine or Bulgaria and play Euro football you need to top the league
Click to expand...
You can if you win their cups. Both countries have three spots in their respective leagues (one Champions League spot and two Conference League spots) plus a cup spot in the Europa League.
 
HonestSpursFan said:
You can if you win their cups. Both countries have three spots in their respective leagues (one Champions League spot and two Conference League spots) plus a cup spot in the Europa League.
Click to expand...
Yeah I gave poor examples without researching but my point is, that lesser leagues, you need to finish top table to play Conference. Its a Festivus for the rest of us.
 
It is a shame how diluted the lower end of these competitions are.

This push for more games more games more games more games more content (which, you'll understand is the reason why when I put that list together of how much government funding ACT pro-sports teams get is listed as by 'piece of content' rather than 'per game') is just always a constant money grab.

If I had my way over UEFA - I can still envision 3 tournaments - but they would be largely back to how they used to be - with the Conference League filling the new additional void:

  • Champions League / Champions Cup
    • League winners only. Keep the coefficient system to rank the teams, and there's essentially two options
      • Go back to the 8 groups of 4 (Top 32)
      • Keep the current single league system (Top 36)
    • However, both methods would include a qualifying round to weed out the lower ranked league winners. Let's assume that Russia's suspension is over, and we keep the current single league system - this would mean a qualifying round between the lowest 36 league winners (just home/away two-legged knockout fixtures like they normally use), which would mean only the Top 18 are guaranteed a League Phase spot. Using current co-efficients (per Wikipedia) that would mean the league winners from the following:
      1780026469822.png
    • If you lose the qualifying round - You get entered into the Conference League phase.
  • UEFA Cup / Europa League
    • Again, back to the old days - only for the domestic cup winners of every UEFA association - with the Group/League structure mirroring the Champions League above. However - Liechtenstein does indeed have a cup, so there is an extra team to include (55) rather than the Champions League (54). This would mean only the top 17 in the graphic above would get the guaranteed League Phase spot. Again, all clubs that lose their qualifying match would then go into the Conference League
    • In the event a club does the domestic double, either the league runner-up, or the cup runner-up (yet to decide in my head which) takes the spot.
  • Conference League
    • Based off the qualifying paths above, there are now 37 clubs that have been knocked out. I kept the League Phase for the Champions and Europa Leagues as I don't think they are that bad of formats to be honest. However for this I'm going a bit more free reign - and I think the old Groups of 4 structure is good. To allow for the current "lets have more European slots" without going overboard - I settled on 16 groups of 4, with a knockout round of 32. So this is when you then start having what is essentially now the extra Champions League spots on the table (for the big leagues) go. I think at this point, given the longer competition time that this one would encompass, seeing as it piggybacks off the qualification playoff for the League/Cup winners, we sort of max out at 64.
      • IF this was decided to have slots awarded based off co-efficients, and essentially each country down the line gets a spot until all equal OR we reach the maximum of 64 - then the top 27 leagues would get their runner-up in this competition (assuming neither of the top 2 win the league or the cup - in which case, this spot would go to the third place in the league).
        1780027292073.png
I am tempted to draw up a how would these competitions look for next season hypothetical - eg, which clubs qualify where
 
NicCarBel said:
It is a shame how diluted the lower end of these competitions are.

This push for more games more games more games more games more content (which, you'll understand is the reason why when I put that list together of how much government funding ACT pro-sports teams get is listed as by 'piece of content' rather than 'per game') is just always a constant money grab.

If I had my way over UEFA - I can still envision 3 tournaments - but they would be largely back to how they used to be - with the Conference League filling the new additional void:

  • Champions League / Champions Cup
    • League winners only. Keep the coefficient system to rank the teams, and there's essentially two options
      • Go back to the 8 groups of 4 (Top 32)
      • Keep the current single league system (Top 36)
    • However, both methods would include a qualifying round to weed out the lower ranked league winners. Let's assume that Russia's suspension is over, and we keep the current single league system - this would mean a qualifying round between the lowest 36 league winners (just home/away two-legged knockout fixtures like they normally use), which would mean only the Top 18 are guaranteed a League Phase spot. Using current co-efficients (per Wikipedia) that would mean the league winners from the following:
      View attachment 7189
    • If you lose the qualifying round - You get entered into the Conference League phase.
  • UEFA Cup / Europa League
    • Again, back to the old days - only for the domestic cup winners of every UEFA association - with the Group/League structure mirroring the Champions League above. However - Liechtenstein does indeed have a cup, so there is an extra team to include (55) rather than the Champions League (54). This would mean only the top 17 in the graphic above would get the guaranteed League Phase spot. Again, all clubs that lose their qualifying match would then go into the Conference League
    • In the event a club does the domestic double, either the league runner-up, or the cup runner-up (yet to decide in my head which) takes the spot.
  • Conference League
    • Based off the qualifying paths above, there are now 37 clubs that have been knocked out. I kept the League Phase for the Champions and Europa Leagues as I don't think they are that bad of formats to be honest. However for this I'm going a bit more free reign - and I think the old Groups of 4 structure is good. To allow for the current "lets have more European slots" without going overboard - I settled on 16 groups of 4, with a knockout round of 32. So this is when you then start having what is essentially now the extra Champions League spots on the table (for the big leagues) go. I think at this point, given the longer competition time that this one would encompass, seeing as it piggybacks off the qualification playoff for the League/Cup winners, we sort of max out at 64.
      • IF this was decided to have slots awarded based off co-efficients, and essentially each country down the line gets a spot until all equal OR we reach the maximum of 64 - then the top 27 leagues would get their runner-up in this competition (assuming neither of the top 2 win the league or the cup - in which case, this spot would go to the third place in the league).
        View attachment 7190
I am tempted to draw up a how would these competitions look for next season hypothetical - eg, which clubs qualify where
Click to expand...
Using this format - this would be the structure of the 3 competitions for next season. I settled on Cup Winners only in the Europe League. In the event of a Domestic Double, 2nd place in the league will take the Europa League spot, and if that nation was eligible for a direct Conference League Group Stage slot, that would instead go to 3rd place in the league.

1780039515646.png
I am open to a slight modification that would see the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League winners from the previous season then be eligible for the Champions League.

How I would envision this is essentially if they were already qualified for the Champions League (whether it's playoff or league phase), then they will receive a League Phase berth. If they were not, they receive a playoff spot in addition, and the amount of direct slots are adjusted appropriately. So, let's use this year's 3 winners of the UEFA competitions as an example
  • Aston Villa and Crystal Palace would be entered into the Qualifying Playoffs for the 2026-27 Champions League
  • PSG and Arsenal have both directly qualified already, so there would be no adjustment.
  • This would mean 56 clubs to be narrowed down to 36 - so Thun (Switzerland) and Hapoel Be'er Sheva (Israel) will instead be in the Playoff spots as well, with the Top 16 nations having their League Champions directly into the League Phase.
  • This would then mean that there are two additional Playoff Losers to be entered into the Conference League, so the two lowest ranked nations would lose their direct slot - meaning Krasnodar (Russia) and Dunasjska Streda (Slovakia) would no longer be qualified to compete for European competition.
 
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