Quote Originally Posted by Bart's Friend Milhouse View Post
I fully admit we would not find the champions of Malta as exciting to watch as most of the teams that made the group stages under the current system but frankly many Maltese people would.
Don't be entirely too sure of that one. I think you'll find that it's the case in Malta, and many other Eastern European countries, that they watch the main European leagues, and support teams from those leagues, so they're just as happy either way. The people who lose are us, who don't know the Maltese teams as well as we do, say, Liverpool, Arsenal, or even the likes of Real Madrid and Inter Milan, for example.
I understand the contradiction in my statement. But I'm not sure that still makes the current scheme of things totally justifiable. A better solution to this problem would be to allocate every country one spot. Again if you will allow me to refer back to the World Cup, I for one would find it rather unjust to allow any top seeded country (eg Italy) the chance to enter two or three squads (say Italy A, Italy B, and Italy C) to qualify for the finals which is again by the very same logic.
I'd argue that this is not the very same logic. The very same logic would be Man United A, Man United B and Man United C entering into the CL.
Having said that, I still stand by my statement that the way Arsenal and Liverpool have been far from the likes of champions. There is no doubt smaller clubs would relish the opportunity of playing in such a competition possibly even more so than the regular visitors
Arsenal and Liverpool were certainly the likes of champions, if you watch the way they played. Whether or not you consider them to be deserving of entry into the competition, you can't fault them on the quality of their football/tactics. What's more, both teams were unfancied. Nobody thought they'd get to the final, or make it past the last 16 for that matter. To continue with the World Cup theme, it's like Turkey or Croatia finishing third. But, if you were to apply the same rules that you want to apply to the CL, the likes of Croatia and Turkey would certainly not have qualified for the World Cup. It's the upper-middle teams that miss out at the expense of the poorer teams, and which ones are more likely to create a shock?

Anyway, onto Spurs v Chelsea. Woeful first half, somewhat interesting second half. Blimey, Aaron Lennon's a bit...well...overrated, isn't he? Lord knows I hope Stevie starts on the right against Israel, although then again, I'd hope that anyway, as otherwise that would mean the dreaded Lampard-Gerrard partnership, and in such a crucial game, a tricky away game at that, it'd be suicide. Also, nice to see a crazed Spurs fan run on the pitch at the end and try to attack the Chelsea players.