The UEFA Corrupt League (the new Champions League format)

[Godotelli]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...e-shafting-poor-enjoy-Leicester-City-can.html

Some extracts:

The hijack by the ranks of the entitled is worse than we ever imagined. It involves not just the useless giants of Milan, whose misplaced sense of entitlement is now inversely proportional to their talent, but that friend of the underdog David Gill, a man whose every move seems to benefit his club, Manchester United, and their wealthy circle of friends.

Gill was among those who worked on the logistics of the Champions League cycle that will begin in 2018-19. And you'll never guess who comes out greatly advantaged from that evaluation.

Serie A will soon have four teams, guaranteed, in the Champions League group stage, despite a quite disastrous record in the play-offs.

As of now, Italy get three teams into the tournament, except in six of the last seven seasons an Italian entrant has fallen in the preliminary elimination rounds.

On page 11 of the UEFA document announcing the new cycle, the extent of Italy's gain can be found; or, to be precise, the extent of the gain for one club: AC Milan.

That Giorgio Marchetti, UEFA's director of club competitions, should be one of the prime movers in the reorganisation of the Champions League co-efficients is no doubt purely coincidental.

Marchetti was born in Luino, north of Milan, was educated in Milan, and supports Milan

On one sheet is the current co-efficient ranking table, which uses the period from 2011-12 to 2015-16 and is based on current form. This shows Milan in 25th place in Europe.
.....
Against this list is another table, showing the positions after the new co-efficients have been calculated, over the same period. Milan are now ninth. And what did Milan actually achieve in that five-season spell to warrant this 16-place leap? Nothing

In one mighty act of bureaucratic skulduggery, Milan leapt over what they would regard as their inferiors, the little big clubs: Arsenal, Manchester City, Valencia, Schalke, Sevilla, Zenit St Petersburg, Porto, Napoli, Bayer Leverkusen, Basle, Manchester United, Shakhtar Donetsk, Athletic Bilbao, Tottenham and Olympiacos.

And they didn't even have to be good enough to get into Europe to do it.

How? History. Milan have succeeded in getting ancient success included in the co-efficients. They get credit for being good more than half a century ago.

You know those clubs who bang on about their storied history to compensate for recent failures? Now their blather is vindicated. Thanks to UEFA — and the elite cabal they placed in charge of this reimagining of fairness

England's representative in this grand carve-up was Gill and — surprise, surprise — Manchester United rise from 20th to 12th under the new system, despite failing to qualify for the Champions League in two of the last three seasons. How Gill is still regarded as a credible presence in football administration, heaven knows

Along comes Gill to make it right, and ensure they stay above Manchester City in one table at least. City are 11th, United 20th in the current system. Thanks to Gill and his cohorts, United flip to 12th, City plummet to 16th.

And the chicanery does not stop there. Not only have Europe's established order carved up the seedings, they have redistributed the money like latter-day Robin Hoods — if the Merry Men had dedicated their lives to shafting the poor

So THE BT deal accounted for £1billion of UEFA's £2.4bn pot. And, with England claiming 40 per cent of that, it made the rest of Europe jealous.

So, in the new cycle of Champions League wealth distribution, the 40 per cent slice has been reduced to 15 per cent. That in itself is no bad thing. Wealth redistribution for European competition is long overdue. Far more money should go to each domestic league to keep the competition healthy.

But that is not how this is going to work. The other 85 per cent is going to be returned to the market pool of competing clubs and will be split according to — you guessed it — UEFA co-efficient.

Having struck inferior deals for their domestic product — because their greed has made their own leagues uncompetitive — they have redressed the balance by grabbing a slice of the Premier League wedge. But it's not a renegotiation. It's a heist. A perfect crime.

So it is a raid. A smash and grab cooked up by the traditional elite and their little helpers — men like Gill and Marchetti — to keep the rich richer, leave the poor poorer, and stop any new names making a claim for what they see as theirs by right. So Leicester should enjoy the sights of Bruges tonight.

From here, it is all stacked against them in a way it simply wasn't in the Premier League last season. That's why miracles still happen in English football — and carve-ups hold sway across UEFA's Europe.

How can this shit be allowed to sail through? Disgusting.

Meanwhile, this guy gets a to make a farewell speech

It's all fucking wrong.