Hi everyone,
Although I'm fully enjoying UEFA Champions League nights, and also Europe League nights, I think that they are becoming a bit more and more repetitive. The same teams reach the highest stages of both competitions each year. But what's more frightening to me, is that even the group stages seem now to allow less and less new-comers. The money that comes with participating in UCL are so much that who ever gets there several times, will have so much to invest that they get a too big advantage against competition and they will reach the group stage again and again. I know they deserved to be there the first few times, but each success grows the gap between the successful ones and their competitors, which are not 'bad at football', they just can't keep up with the investments.
When I was growing up, I felt that almost any team could beat almost any other one (I mean the ones that got into the UCL group stage). Teams that used to be a permanent presence then, are now not even able to qualify anymore. I'm thinking about teams like Lazio, Panathinaikos, Deportivo, Fiorentina, Villareal, Lyon, Marseille, Hamburg or Stuttgart, or even Basel, Steaua, Red Star Belgrade or St Etienne.
I'm not saying that any of the above mentioned teams are not good. I like the way they play. I'm saying that they just can't keep up the pace anymore. They still qualify in the group stages, possibly even get out of the group stage, but whenever one of them meets a team like Bayern, Real Madrid, Juventus or Barcelona, none really pose a threat anymore.
Monaco and Porto did the last big surprise, I think.
Money seems to be the root of all evil, and possibly UEFA should really pay more attention to the financial limitations that they imposed.
At this rate, we will see only games between the same teams, year after year. One possible solution would be (and I agree with Mourinho on this) that teams that lose in UCL do not get a 'second chance' in Europe League anymore. Maybe if the teams that are now finishing 3rd or 4th place in countries like Holland,Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Ukraine, France, Romania, Norway, Austria (sorry for any other countries I'm leaving behind, but I can't write the whole Europe country list), will compete for the opportunity to win UEFA, and have an ensured place in UCL next year, they will all grow stronger and stronger and any new young player that shines for them doesn't automatically move to bigger teams just to stay on the bench.
What do you think?