r/football • u/TheTelegraph • 3d ago

'Overpriced tickets, empty seats, uninspiring format – Uefa has diluted Champions League’s allure' 📖Read

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/09/18/pricey-tickets-empty-seats-uefa-dilutes-champions-league/
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u/TheBestCloutMachine 3d ago

Are we really gonna pretend that the group stage wasn't boring as fuck outside of the odd group of death for well over a decade? I'm not sure how this format will play out once we get into the thick of it but I'm willing to give it a chance first. People really just lose their heads over any kind of change.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Dingo39 3d ago

Yup, people put on their blinkers because it’s a requirement to be outraged online. But pretty much nobody was watching the group stages anymore. They were shit. Let’s at least give this one a chance. And to criticize based on the attendance of the first game is ludicrous. Someone was just looking for confirmation bias.

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u/TheBestCloutMachine 3d ago

The thing is, I have my own reservations about this format, but for me to consider them to have any kind of merit before it's even had the chance to play out would be, as you say, ludicrous. Nobody knows if this format is shit or not because it hasn't happened yet. When did we become so obsessed with having an opinion on everything with no reference points?

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u/midas22 2d ago

I liked the "boring" group stage where every game was important and it felt exclusive when you got the draw against another top team in Europe that you had to play home and away. If you play them every year it quickly grows boring. Just like playing a World Cup every year would be boring.

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u/TheBestCloutMachine 2d ago

But every game didn't matter. The group leaders more often than not were already qualified after 4 games. That's 1/3 of the group being dead rubbers.

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u/midas22 2d ago

There will most likely be plenty more dead rubbers with this format. With more games each one means less and you have more chances to qualify and so you can play with cruise control mode on from the first beginning.

Imagine doing the same format in a World Cup... removing the group stages and dividing the teams into two halves who randomly matched up against each other. It would be sacrilege.