The Footie Fool

With three of the last eight teams in the Champions League quarterfinals from England (Liverpool, Chelsea and ManU), and none of them drawing each other in the quarterfinal round, we face the possibility of an all English final in Athens in May.

It’s not difficult to conceive that all three could make it to the next round. Not only have they avoided each other in the quarters, but they also managed to avoid the last 2 traditional heavyweights of the competition: AC Milan and Bayern Munich.

If they did move on to the semi’s, Chelsea would face Liverpool with ManU taking on the winner of AC Milan vs. Bayern Munich.

But you have to wonder if an all English final, or even having 3 of the last 4 teams being English, is a good thing for the competition? It seems to me that having so many teams from one league progressing this far in the competition adds some validity to Michael Platini’s argument that the big three leagues (EPL, La Liga and Series A) have too many teams in the competition and their numbers should be reduced from 4 to 3 qualifying teams.

Personally, I like the Champions League format the way it is currently. As a neutral, I echo the sentiments of the Soccer Legends blog:

Honestly, for neutrals, would you rather see Arsenal/Roma/Valencia (off the top of my head), or Liberec (Czech champions in 2006)/Legia Warsaw (Polish champions) in the group stage? I realize this sounds condescending, and I don’t mean it as so, but simply from a sporting perspective, the first group of teams deserves to be there as much as the second group. That’s what the qualifying rounds do now. These sets of teams already end up playing each other.

In my opinion, I hope that if (and it is a big if at this point) all the English teams move on to the next round and set up the possibility of an all English final, it does not provide the opening for Platini to push through his most radical ideas regarding the competition. As a neutral, the Champions League works just fine the way it is.