Champions league - Do we deserve it

I guess that is the nature of a Capitalist market, and that pattern won't be shifted. The market demand is for the best to play the best, for me that is much better entertainment than seeing Anderlech or Basle against Barca, I'd rather watch Chelsea or Inter against Barca. People are saying that 'if fourth place English sides deserve their spot, then so do we'. I struggle with that. If you get beyond the problem with the name of the tournament and look at it as a tournament where the eilte play the elite, then we certainly don't deserve a place over Spurs. As a neutral, if I could watch King, Bale, Dawson, Palacios, Modric, Lennon, Gudjohnsen and Defoe or watch Thompson, Brown, McGeady, Hinkel and Boruc, I know who I would rather watch. May be an inconvenient truth but that's how I see it.

The best microcosm to represent that point is that a player surplus to requirements at Spurs is embrassingly, far ad away the best player in our squad. If you look at Champs League as the forum where the elite compete, what gives us the right to be there over Spurs? Second in a two team league or fourth in arguably the most competitive league in the world: I know what I think is more deserving of a Champs League place this year! It's sad to say it, but I'm detaching myself as a Celtic fan and looking at it as a football fan.

 

Ofcourse we deserve it, we are the giant killers.

• Boavista
• Celta Vigo
• Copenhagen
• Benfica
• Juve
• Porto
• Rosenberg
• Man utd
• Blackburn
• Liverpool
• Villa Real
• D Moscow
• S Moscow
• Barca at Nou camp (unbeaten for 44)
• Ajax
• Stuttgart
• Tblisi
• FC Kosice
• Inter Milan

All in no particular order, most teams from 1995+ then of course Inter

Also a huge amount of teams not on this list, just a few off the cuff

Saint Martin and Strachan did have a fair part to play in some of those bigger games but let's not take any credit from the Managers and players around for some of the other wins.

Always a complete gutter when we go out though.

 

put in a nutshell

 

apply the same logic to the World Cup? it's impossible.

whilst can agree the refereeing decisions domestically are particularly awful and tactile in some instances. On the European level we are as equally suseptible as other teams to harsh decisions in the majority of games at least. Doesn't matter what team Ronaldo is in, he will always give refs a tough job to call.

 

Such a fine line. Remember when Brown had a goal wrongly disallowed against aalborg at 0-0 in 85 minute ?

Ano its gone and that/History. But it could have been very different.

 

I preferred the Champions League right from the start. I can't totally remember the whole set up but it was a smaller tourney and you did have teams from smaller nations competing in it.

Since it's been revamped it's become bloated and far less exciting imo. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.

As a previous poster said, this tourney is for europe's elite, maybe they could rename the tournament to that, or the g14 league, sky money league or the up to our eyeballs in debt league!

Back on topic, we all know the rules at the start of our league so yes we deserve our crack at the qualifiers although with our squad I think it might be a tourney we'll want to watch from behind the couch.

 

Our fans and our teams deserves to be in the Champions league, our Players dont

 

The Champions League;<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
<o></o>
A league format tournament to determine who the champions of Europe are.. <o></o>
<o></o>
The name isn’t The winners from each European League play off... <o></o>
<o></o>
Yes we qualified so we deserve, <o></o>
<o></o>
J<o></o>

 

This squad does not deserve to be there, but the supporters do.

 

UEFA and FIFA talk about their worries of the richer clubs getting richer while all the others are being left behind, well are UEFA not to blame for using the current format in the Champions League ? If the European Cup was purely for the champions of each country it would probably not attract as much money from sponors, however it would remain true to it's roots of only the champions of each country participating.

So in my mind it's a case of those at UEFA saying one thing and doing the other, it's ridiculous that some countries champions have to play two or three rounds of qualifiers while Real Madrid, Man Utd, etc get into the Group Stages, if they are allowed in they should be the one's playing qualifiers.

 

i know what your saying mate but if they let the champions of smaller counties like wales and ireland in without qualifying it would be a shambles.we are only saying that cos we have lost our places.but that has nothing to with england and spain having 4 teams its more to do with the likes of similar small nations like belgium doing better in europe.so its up to us and the huns to sort it out ourselves

 

I couldnt agree more mate, the suits in charge are interested in the here & now, keeping the same * clubs who reach the last eight in the limelight, thinking that the plebs want to see these same * succeed year in year out. WRONG! ITS STALE! ITS BORING! & there is little or no chance of a fairytale ending. the format needs changing.

 

spot on mate! they are the ones who changed the set up alowing 3-4 teams from the big leagues going into the cl and if you finish 3rd? you drop into the europa!(another i dont agree on) but cos of this the europa cup(wich i have always liked) has been de-valued because top teams want more money!

we had platini not that long ago stateing they might take away a 4th team from the top leagues and you had managers in the epl breaking their hearts and only thinking about the money! sickens me aswell especially the amount of dosh the epl generates.


we also had florentino perez(real madrid president)wanting to break away from the champions league and setting up a league purely for the so called(big boys in europe)not includeing the clubs like celtic,feynoord,psv,ajax, etc in this league! puerly beacause they are only wanting a * of a lot more money! a * joke and its cos of * like him thats destroying the football in the world.

 

great post mate