The official CUK Premier League Roundup

[Doggy Styles]

I think they still have a pre-qualifying round before the group stage.

If chelsea win, don't they go to the group stage and Arsenal are relegated to the play-off qualifier?

[Doggy Styles]

How can the Premier League credibly put teams into the 'Champions' League who have finished 20/25 points off the top of the table?

As well as Spain, Italy's 3rd place team is 20 points off the top.

Germany are putting in two teams that finished 17 and 21 points off the top.

In Scotland Motherwell were 31 points off the top.

[d000hg]

Putting any Scottish team into the same tournament as the winners of the Premiership is like allowing the League 2 promoted teams to join in.

[SimonMac]

I think they still have a pre-qualifying round before the group stage.

If chelsea win, don't they go to the group stage and Arsenal are relegated to the play-off qualifier?

Nope, can't be arsed to find the link but its been done to death on the Arsenal forums if Chelski win the CL all 4 English teams go into the group stages

[Bunk]

Why does the delta matter... just allow only the winners of each league. Except then it would be low on teams so I suggest they include winners of FA/league cup and/or championship, OR invite winners of leagues in far more countries such as Algeria.

The problem with only allowing league winners is that you end up with Real Madrid knocking 20 past the champions of some footballing backwater. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th placed teams of England, Spain, Italy and Germany are far more deserving than the winners of a lot of leagues. And letting the cup winners into the Champions League wouldn't work either, it's a lot easier to have a surprise winner in the cup and they would just get embarrassed in the Champions League. The league is the best test of quality which is why they get the CL spots.

[d000hg]

The problem with only allowing league winners is that you end up with Real Madrid knocking 20 past the champions of some footballing backwater.

Sounds like fun to me. We get that happening at the World Cup.

[Bunk]

Sounds like fun to me. We get that happening at the World Cup.

It still happens from time to time in the CL, especially if one of the big teams finishes lower than usual in their league and end up having to qualify. You've got to feel sorry for the likes of Barry Town or whoever, when they get into the CL qualifiers and come up against teams where one player costs many times as much as their entire team

[FiveTimes]

The problem with only allowing league winners is that you end up with Real Madrid knocking 20 past the champions of some footballing backwater. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th placed teams of England, Spain, Italy and Germany are far more deserving than the winners of a lot of leagues. And letting the cup winners into the Champions League wouldn't work either, it's a lot easier to have a surprise winner in the cup and they would just get embarrassed in the Champions League. The league is the best test of quality which is why they get the CL spots.

Uefa cup winners are generally good quality teams due to the drop out of the CL group phase.
It would be an incentive to Liverpool, chelsea, newcastle to put a string team out unlike spurs this year who couldn't be bothered with the competion.
If they had taken it serious then they you dont become dependant on the outcome of another match to determine your entry to the CL.

[Bunk]

Uefa cup winners are generally good quality teams due to the drop out of the CL group phase.
It would be an incentive to Liverpool, chelsea, newcastle to put a string team out unlike spurs this year who couldn't be bothered with the competion.
If they had taken it serious then they you dont become dependant on the outcome of another match to determine your entry to the CL.

I agree about the Europa winners getting entry to the CL, I was referring to the FA and Carlton cups. If the winner has already qualified for the CL you could get some proper diddy teams being handed a CL place as runners up in a cup competition.

[Doggy Styles]

The problem with only allowing league winners is that you end up with Real Madrid knocking 20 past the champions of some footballing backwater.

That's how they used to do it for 40 years, until UEFA and Sky decided they weren't making enough money out of it. There weren't any 20-nils.

It used to be a cup for proper champions.