By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Jan 19, 2012) US Soccer Players -- It's easy enough to pick on Major League Soccer and the CONCACAF Champions League. Not only are their flaws obvious, in most cases they can't fall back on obvious success. Not so for Europe, where the UEFA Champions League can overlook its faults while generating massive amounts of money for all involved, especially for those teams advancing to the knockout stage. Yet the Champions League has its problems, and some quarters might actually argue that those problems will eventually overtake it.
That might be pushing the point too far, but there's at least the feeling that there's a better tournament hiding out in the current Champions League. With that in mind, here are some things I believe are at least worth discussing.
Limit The Rosters
Though resets should be allowed between the group and knockout stages, teams should have to make roster decisions in theory as part of the tournament. Make things difficult. Teams are limited to the same roster rules we see in the World Cup. 23-man competition roster with very restrictive rules on injury replacements. As it stands, UEFA is trying to play the role of the domestic leagues in pushing for homegrown players. That's an overstep. This level of competition should have the best coaches making the best personnel decisions for their teams. We can get rid of the bulk of the Article 18 provisions under the current rules and the tournament will be better off for it.
Limit The Colors
Article 19 under the current rules go into monotonous detail concerning uniforms. There's a simpler and decidedly more elegant solution. Both teams wear their first-choice home uniforms unless there's a clash. Right now, that rule is only in place for the Champions League final. Extend it to every game played in the competition. No creative third jerseys, no messing with what should be a sense of decorum when playing for the European title.
Reset The Groups
In a tournament that isn't reserved just for domestic league champions from the prior season, who else do you include. The current version of the Champions League answers a basic problem through addition. 76 teams, reduced to 32 by the time we hit the group stage. Only ten of those teams had to run the gauntlet of the qualifying rounds, and even that favors the lower finishers from the bigger leagues by letting them in late. Instead of setting up the group stage to satisfy the elite, UEFA could send a message about competitive equality. It's simple enough. The top 8 domestic league champions according to the UEFA Association ranking automatically qualify for one spot in each of the eight groups. Everyone else has to qualify and those matchups are decided by an unseeded draw. After all, we're talking about teams that didn't win their domestic leagues. In the spirit of this competition, they're fortunate to even be included.
Players Aren't Cup Tied After The Group Stage
There's an old ideal in European tournaments that once a player has participated with one club, he's tied to that club for the rest of the tournament. This does two things simultaneously. It decreases the impact of the January transfer window while also decreasing the likelihood a team still in the Champions League would spend on a cup tied player. Instead, rosters should be open in January, and every player is free to participate in the knockout stage with another club. UEFA thought they were making a bold step in 2010 by allowing players who participated in the qualifying rounds to sign with a new club and participate in the group stage - as long as the first club was no longer in the tournament. They can be substantially bolder. There's simply no competitive reason to devalue the January window. This is a tournament that's supposed to be about European soccer's heavyweights slugging it out on the biggest stage. Allow those clubs to act accordingly.
Knockout Stage
Step one is switching from two games to a single game in all of the knockout rounds. If it's good enough for the knockout rounds of the World Cup, it's good enough for the Champions League. Appeals to tradition aside, there are far too many 180 minute contests that could've just as easily been decided over 90. Step two is moving those single knockout round games to primetime on Saturday and Sunday. That means the biggest games of the European soccer season available live in North America at a reasonable weekend hour. UEFA knows the value here, it's why the one-game final is on a Saturday and is now on US network television. Extend that to the rest of the knockout stage. the disruption to the league schedules aren't as significant as they might seem. After all, we've got all of those free midweek dates to work with.
Comments, questions, solutions to problems that have yet to present themselves. Please, tell me all about it.
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