Has the Champions League lost its magic

Maybe not for this thread, but couldn’t be bothered making a new thread.

I think the fact football is so easily accessible, and all the information around it is so accessible, it sort of creates a perception that modern football is boring.

The novelty is gone. There’s no surprising players at tournaments that you hadn’t heard of. No excitement of watching a team in Europe that you’ve not watched before, or the feeling of watching Inter Milan on Channel 4 for the first time.

People naturally harp back to days when they were younger.

A lot of us are guilty of going back to 90s Serie A, but a lot of the matches were dull affairs, yet we refer back to them as exciting times. I suspect that excitement is largely down to nostalgia, novelty and unfamiliarity.

Familiarity breeds contempt, as they say.

I should caveat by saying that I do think as times have gone on then there’s a lot less mavericks in football, less players who do stuff off the cuff but there is still some kicking about.

I’m a bit of a football romantic, so would prefer the CL went back to Champions only (ironically it is more of a European cup now) and no seeding but you can obviously understand why the big wigs and tv companies thought no seeding needed scrapped.

The premier tournament should have the best v the best, why should the Italian champions play the Spanish champions in the first round whilst two part time teams play each other?

It’ll never go back to that, quite simply because the casual fans and tourist fans won’t have an interest which means less tv and sponsorship money.

Which is a shame, football would be much better if the wealth was evenly spread throughout the game which would create a more level playing field if one CL qualifier from each country got an even split to money.

Although, on the other hand, this would make it hard for any of their domestic rivals to catch up to them, which just creates a closed shop which we are criticising - just the country representation would be greater.
 
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TheProdfather said:
is anyone saying our competition is any good?

nobody would watch any of the games other than our own
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And that is my point exactly.

You would think fans who pay money to watch a low quality competition with only 2 possible winners would enjoy watching a competition with much higher quality and multiple possible winners?
 
English clubs are dominating European Football just now and its not good.

I wouldn't be surprised if an English Team wins each competition this year or there is an English Team in each final. Thanks to Sky constantly throwing money at them, its made them a league that no other league can really compete with.

That in itself has made the CL lose its magic. Plus 4th place in a league in a competition called the Champions League is just beyond ridiculous. With the new format they should be renaming it.
 
What is the point? You barely even get an upset now it's weighted that much in favour of such a small number of teams.

Ajax getting to the semi-finals was refreshing a few years ago. A team that's won the whole thing four or five times going on a run shouldn't be a surprise but UEFA want it that way.

Football is shit now. There are no mavericks, teams scared to lose, fans bickering over how much their team has spent and why that means something... A load of crap.

Rangers game
'Did my coupon win?'

That's all that matters now.
 
linthousebear1981 said:
English clubs are dominating European Football just now and its not good.
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To be fair, there has always been one nation having a period of dominance in European competition.

In the early 1970's it was the Dutch then the Germans, late 70's-mid 80's it was the English clubs, in the late 80's-late 90's it was the (doped up) Italians, late 90's to early 2000's it was the Germans, in the late 2000's it was a mixture of the Spanish and the English, the 2010's it was still the Spanish, now it's the English again.

It goes in cycles, there is always a period of complete dominance at all levels by a nation. Just so happens that the English league has had the best managers in the world centered in their league for the last 8 years.
 
I’ll pick matches I fancy watching but very rarely tune into it now. Rich clubs getting richer. The enjoyment is out it.
In saying that when we are in it I enjoy it until we aren’t.
 
For me it lost it's magic 10-15 years ago.

It can only be realistically won by a handful of teams from the big TV leagues. The rest are just cannon fodder there to make up the numbers. Even the later stages are just the same teams playing each other, year after year.

Fixing it would require a more equitable share of TV and sponsorship money, but let's be honest no business is going to handover to it's competitors what is rightfully it's own revenue.
 
Maybe it is because I am getting older but I think football in general has lost it's magic.

After pretty much every game there is some made up controversy, Games in general are boring, players are basically robots who are coached to within an inch of their life, constant diving/cheating.

My son is 7 and plays for his local team every other Sunday he plays in 6 a side games and I actually enjoy watching them more than the premiership, there is a real passion, trying their hardest and disappointment if they lose. Professionals lose and you get the usual soundbite but knowing they are picking up their thousands a week wages regardless of how they performed
 
L&D RSC said:
And that is my point exactly.

You would think fans who pay money to watch a low quality competition with only 2 possible winners would enjoy watching a competition with much higher quality and multiple possible winners?
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4 or 5 possible winners from the whole of europe? that's not much of a competition

the only reason we pay money to watch our competition is because we're in it, not because of the competition itself, slightly different
 
Thommo2006 said:
Maybe it is because I am getting older but I think football in general has lost it's magic.

After pretty much every game there is some made up controversy, Games in general are boring, players are basically robots who are coached to within an inch of their life, constant diving/cheating.

My son is 7 and plays for his local team every other Sunday he plays in 6 a side games and I actually enjoy watching them more than the premiership, there is a real passion, trying their hardest and disappointment if they lose. Professionals lose and you get the usual soundbite but knowing they are picking up their thousands a week wages regardless of how they performed
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it's not enjoyable as it used to be, like you say...too much drama during and after games, it's like a pantomime at times
 
It's the over saturation as well.

I can remember the 1996 quarter final, Real Madrid v Juventus. It felt like something from another world.

Champions of Spain v Champions of Italy.
Two of the most exciting young players on the planet in Raul and Del Piero.

Still a fresh format and a rare chance to see the peak of football .

The emergence of Shevchenko and Rebrov in that startling Dynamo Kiev side a year or two later was amazing as well.

Now it's relentless coverage and it's fine if you are a big football fan with time to spare.

There's also the money side.

Let's get real here, Man City should be scrapping with Leeds for promotion, not winning the Champions League. Things like that have soured football for many.
 
Wordy_Rappinghood said:
Let's get real here, Man City should be scrapping with Leeds for promotion, not winning the Champions League. Things like that have soured football for many.
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I have absolutely no love for Man City, but they won a European trophy long before oil money.

Ultimately, money is at the crux of everything but that’s not anything new.

A large element of dislike for it comes from the fact we’re no longer one of the biggest spenders in the world, and no longer at the top table as a result.
 
Diego Maradona said:
20 years since Porto won it. Last time a club out of the big 5 leagues.

Sad how it’s evolved really. Rarely watch it any more tbh - that’s pretty telling
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Can say big 5 leagues but I had a look and think the last French team to win it was Marseille.

Feels mad given their inclusion in the so called top 5 leagues
 
The minute they started letting 2nd 3rd and 4th place teams in from big leagues and making smaller nations champions go through 3 qualifiers was it's downfall. The name is in the title Champions League i.e Champions Vs Champions with runners ups and cup winners going into Europa. The problem is all the big money clubs feel entitled to a slice of the pie when they shouldn't have that luxury and if they want it they should have to win their domestic league.

All these so called big used to be small Arab / American funded clubs have ruined football
 
Jim Prideaux said:
I have absolutely no love for Man City, but they won a European trophy long before oil money. Isn’t this whole thread mainly about folk wanting smaller teams, with previous success to be competitive?

Ultimately, money is at the crux of everything but that’s not anything new. A large element of dislike for it comes from the fact we’re no longer one of the biggest spenders in the world, and no longer at the top table.
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It's not the same thing though, is it?

Small teams being competitive isn't the same as toys for billionaires.

I do think your last point is valid though, would I be saying the same if some mad Arabs bought us and pushed for us to join a new European league?

Probably not.
 
For fans, it’s undoubtedly lost a lot of its attraction, football is a bit more attritional given the financial stakes (just an observation, no stats to back it up). For players, especially teams in our sized league, it’s a chance to rub shoulders with the elite so I think it still holds a certain mystique. Clubs love the dosh.
 
Can you imagine how much better it would be for fans if it was champions of each of these leagues in the new format.
Be some tasty away trips right there

1. **English Premier League (England)**
2. **La Liga (Spain)**
3. **Serie A (Italy)**
4. **Bundesliga (Germany)**
5. **Ligue 1 (France)**
6. **Primeira Liga (Portugal)**
7. **Russian Premier League (Russia)***
8. **Eredivisie (Netherlands)**
9. **Belgian Pro League (Belgium)**
10. **Ukrainian Premier League (Ukraine)**
11. **Turkish Süper Lig (Turkey)**
12. **Scottish Premiership (Scotland)**
13. **Super League Greece (Greece)**
14. **Swiss Super League (Switzerland)**
15. **Austrian Bundesliga (Austria)**
16. **Danish Superliga (Denmark)**
17. **Czech First League (Czech Republic)**
18. **Cyprus First Division (Cyprus)**
19. **Croatian First Football League (Croatia)**
20. **Serbian SuperLiga (Serbia)**
21. **Norwegian Eliteserien (Norway)**
22. **Polish Ekstraklasa (Poland)**
23. **Israeli Premier League (Israel)**
24. **Hungarian Nemzeti Bajnokság I (Hungary)**
25. **Swedish Allsvenskan (Sweden)**
26. **Romanian Liga I (Romania)**
27. **Slovak Super Liga (Slovakia)**
28. **Slovenian PrvaLiga (Slovenia)**
29. **Bulgarian First Professional Football League (Bulgaria)**
30. **Finnish Veikkausliiga (Finland)**
31. **Kazakhstan Premier League (Kazakhstan)**
32. **Belarusian Premier League (Belarus)**
33. **Moldovan National Division (Moldova)**
34. **Latvian Higher League (Latvia)**
35. **Estonian Meistriliiga (Estonia)**
36. **Lithuanian A Lyga (Lithuania)**
 
Wordy_Rappinghood said:
It's the over saturation as well.

I can remember the 1996 quarter final, Real Madrid v Juventus. It felt like something from another world.

Champions of Spain v Champions of Italy.
Two of the most exciting young players on the planet in Raul and Del Piero.

Still a fresh format and a rare chance to see the peak of football .

The emergence of Shevchenko and Rebrov in that startling Dynamo Kiev side a year or two later was amazing as well.

Now it's relentless coverage and it's fine if you are a big football fan with time to spare.

There's also the money side.

Let's get real here, Man City should be scrapping with Leeds for promotion, not winning the Champions League. Things like that have soured football for many.
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Kids today would just have been excited about Haaland coming up against Mbappe for the first time as you were for Raul and Del Piero back then. Likewise the Messi and Ronaldo battles. I'd say it's more of an age thing where people tend to look back on their own eras as the best. Kinda what @Jim Prideaux mentioned about Serie A in the '90s being put on a mythical pedestal on here. Nothing wrong with that, everyone has their own personal connection to football.

Ronaldo and Real Madrid vs. Man Utd at Old Trafford was probably the iconic game of my childhood but there have plenty of dramatic storylines to rival that in recent years. Liverpool vs. Barca, PSG vs Barca, BVB vs Real and Ajax vs Spurs.

There probably is something your point about the format being tired but in terms of match quality and excitement not much has changed.
 
It is a business arrangement rather than a competition to see who is the next team now.. and that has changed the dynamic between the sport and casual & match-going fans.

You can predict 3/4 of the last 8 sides on the Champions League from an early stage.
The Europa League is a more engaging competition, with some traditional big names featuring regularly.

I preferred football in the 90s-00s.. felt like a better mix of technique and physical, distinct styles of football between countries also on show.
Said that, I was in my teens & 20s back then and everything is rose-tinted :cool:
Nowadays it is all about technique, speed and marketing. And everyone seems to play a mild variation of similar tactics/formations.. anyone going against the trend is seen as being a bit off the wall.
 
prenzlauerbear said:
Kids today would just have been excited about Haaland coming up against Mbappe for the first time as you were for Raul and Del Piero back then. Likewise the Messi and Ronaldo battles. I'd say it's more of an age thing where people tend to look back on their own eras as the best. Kinda what @Jim Prideaux mentioned about Serie A in the '90s being put on a mythical pedestal on here. Nothing wrong with that, everyone has their own personal connection to football.

Ronaldo and Real Madrid vs. Man Utd at Old Trafford was probably the iconic game of my childhood but there have plenty of dramatic storylines to rival that in recent years. Liverpool vs. Barca, PSG vs Barca, BVB vs Real and Ajax vs Spurs.

There probably is something your point about the format being tired but in terms of match quality and excitement not much has changed.
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My Nephews watch all the big games without the jaded sensibility.

I'm the first to admit my age has something to do with it and I do wonder if most of us saying it's lost it's sheen are just of an age where almost everything has!
 
Hamilcar_Barca said:
Says a lot when my ambition for next season is to make the CL so that we can get the riches it offers whilst depriving the dregs of humanity of the same bounty in the hope that we might make 3rd and get a crack at the Europa League where we'd have a glimmer of hope.
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No drop downs next season in the new format ....
 
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Used to love it and I've gone to a good few games, even as a neutral fan, over the years. Find the whole thing a bit too predictable nowadays. Half thinking about applying for tickets for the final in Wembley but am going to wait to see what the prices are going to be like first. Last year prices were category 1: €690, category 2: €490, category 3: €180 and category 4: €70. Would like to see Man City v Bayern or Real at Wembley.
 
For me, yes. I haven't watched a minute of it without Rangers.

Who is going to win? A team from the rich leagues.

As much as I dislike it, I don't think my opinion matters. It's clearly doing a lot better financially than when I was really invested in the outcome (even with no Rangers).

I found myself being more interested in the Europa competitions, but once again I think I'm in a tiny minority.
 
Money has ruined it as well, the big clubs pluck up the best young talent from smaller nations before they can even develop and help those smaller nations teams achieve anything.

What's left is what hasn't already been deemed good enough to cherry pick at a young age.

There needs to be rules to stop big clubs stockpiling the best young talent.
 
If Rangers arent playing in it I generally wouldnt go out of my way to watch it. It's always the same big sides in the latter stages generally. Whereas in the past you'd get more variety and interesting matchups. I don't think today's players are as exciting either.
 
It’s all relevant to financial stature

Your Manchester clubs, Madrid etc will find it competitive and exciting

We find the EL competitive and exciting because a lot of clubs have the same stature as ourselves and it’s about being realistic chances of progressing in the tournaments.

Don’t get me wrong the money is great for a club like ours to gain from champions league football.

But I’d much rather watch us compete in the EL and find it more exciting as there’s bit more of a level playing field for us, more of a chance for us to go deep into the tournament.
 
It's still a high level of football that can be entertaining but i think the Champions League represents how a group of around 15 clubs from the biggest leagues have cannibalised the sport, and unless you support one of those clubs, it's become a bit stale seeing them regularly find themselves in the latter stages of the Champions League. You can see looking through the tournament history that 2005 was when things really started changing. The big leagues started pulling away from everyone even further financially and very few have been capable of challenging them since.


Since the Champions League rebranding until 2005 you had clubs like Psv, Ajax, Porto, Dynamo Kyiv, Panathinaikos and Nantes all reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League, with Porto winning the competition. In a ten year span you had clubs from nine countries reaching the final four and twenty one clubs in total made it to that stage.



From 2006 to today the only club outside of England, France, Italy, Germany or Spain to even reach the semi-final of the competition were Ajax in 2019, and they lost their two best players within months of losing to Spurs in the semi-final. The top clubs are in the latter stages of the competition far more regularly than they used to be.



The diversity of clubs has shrunk and if you're not within the borders of four or five countries, winning the Europa League is as good as it will ever get when it comes to winning a european trophy. Even if you are within the borders of those countries, Sevilla have shown there's still a ceiling, they may as well own the Europa League, yet have never made it beyond the Round of 16 in the Champions League.
 
Berserker said:
Used to love it and I've gone to a good few games, even as a neutral fan, over the years. Find the whole thing a bit too predictable nowadays. Half thinking about applying for tickets for the final in Wembley but am going to wait to see what the prices are going to be like first. Last year prices were category 1: €690, category 2: €490, category 3: €180 and category 4: €70. Would like to see Man City v Bayern or Real at Wembley.
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Still deciding whether to go in the SkyBox or Prestige Restuarant:


uclf.hospitality.uefa.com

UEFA Champions League final - Official hospitality packages

Official hospitality packages for the UEFA Champions League final.
uclf.hospitality.uefa.com uclf.hospitality.uefa.com
 
Wordy_Rappinghood said:
It's the over saturation as well.

I can remember the 1996 quarter final, Real Madrid v Juventus. It felt like something from another world.

Champions of Spain v Champions of Italy.
Two of the most exciting young players on the planet in Raul and Del Piero.

Still a fresh format and a rare chance to see the peak of football .

The emergence of Shevchenko and Rebrov in that startling Dynamo Kiev side a year or two later was amazing as well.

Now it's relentless coverage and it's fine if you are a big football fan with time to spare.

There's also the money side.

Let's get real here, Man City should be scrapping with Leeds for promotion, not winning the Champions League. Things like that have soured football for many.
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Man City won a European trophy before we did.The Arab money helps nowadays but they have been successful before it arrived
 
Also, can I just say that absolutely no one is tuning in to RFS (Latvia) v Struga (Macedonia). So we can just forget the absolute nonsense argument of making it champions only.
 
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As a neutral that likes a punt, splitting the last 16 over 4 different nights doesn't help either.

Same thing has happened with international football, games spread out across 10 days or whatever it is rather than everyone playing a wed- sat/sun
 
Northampton Lodger said:
I could probably name every European Cup winner from 1968 to Liverpool winning it at Wembley. When it became the CL it seemed to pick up but now it is very boring . Could probably name 6/8 of next seasons Q/F. When you see the fans of these teams politely clapping a winning goal then the games a bogey.
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Thats an age thing though.

I could tell you every FA Cup winning team from the 80s. Couldn't tell you who won it 2 years ago.
 
The new format will help it bring back a lot of people. The group stages have been boring for years as the way they were drawn rarely caused any upsets or shocks.

The knockout stages are absolutely fine for me, while its often the same clubs at the end of the tournament you have five different winners in the last five years so its still a competitive tournament. There won't be many leagues or cups around Europe with such a wide range of different winners.
 
It's lost its magic since it went to Sky, I remember as a kid buzzing to finish school and watch the Champions League on ITV, then talking about it with mates all day the next day. Everyone watched it. Since it's now behind a paywall, I imagine you don't get that buzz any more.
 
Portadown_Bear said:
Thats an age thing though.

I could tell you every FA Cup winning team from the 80s. Couldn't tell you who won it 2 years ago.
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Maybe , I bet you would find it easier to name the 8 CL quarter finalists next year than the 8 FA cup quarter finalists though.

In the CL they have made it very difficult for a new team to emerge. They make it easy for their fav teams to emerge from the groups.
 
For me the best times were probably 2002-2006.

Seemed to be a much better balance across the continent and there seemed to be a lot more buzz around it
 
The Europa League and Conference League are far better competitions for throwing up interesting and competitive matchups.

It’s also set up to have the same teams in it season after season.
 
RabSpackman said:
It is a business arrangement rather than a competition to see who is the next team now.. and that has changed the dynamic between the sport and casual & match-going fans.

You can predict 3/4 of the last 8 sides on the Champions League from an early stage.
The Europa League is a more engaging competition, with some traditional big names featuring regularly.

I preferred football in the 90s-00s.. felt like a better mix of technique and physical, distinct styles of football between countries also on show.
Said that, I was in my teens & 20s back then and everything is rose-tinted :cool:
Nowadays it is all about technique, speed and marketing. And everyone seems to play a mild variation of similar tactics/formations.. anyone going against the trend is seen as being a bit off the wall.
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Totally agree with all of this. I can throw in the 70s and 80s too. The game just felt more real and authentic. More raw perhaps, on and off the park. Managers and players pitting their wits and skills against each other. I understand the need to make the game, stadia, the atmosphere much more sanitised, to fit into a much more sanitised world. But now so much of the game itself is data driven. Much less to do with instinct, or natural talent. Used to be they'd try to make computer games as close to the real thing as possible. Now it seems they're trying to make football as much like a computer game as possible.
In answer to the OP, in a word, yes.
 
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