Ange Postecoglou has given his support to keeping the Champions League open to all.
Some champion clubs have to navigate their way through four rounds of qualifying but technically any champion club from a UEFA nation has the dream of facing Real Madrid in a competitive setting.
UEFA seem to be constantly evolving the Champions League towards favouring clubs from the richest countries but despite that movement Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus are still angling for a closed shop ‘Super League’.
Tellingly Barcelona and Juventus have failed to make it out of their groups to the Champions League knock-out phase in the new year.
Asked about his thoughts on a ‘Super League’, El Laguero reports the Celtic boss saying:
Part of the beauty of this competition is that all clubs have the possibility of playing it open if they qualify on the field”
Postecoglou, coach of @CelticFC, asked at the Bernabéu about the Super League
Celtic are back in the Champions League for the first time in five seasons but have their place in the history of the competition as the first club to lift the current trophy.
In 1967 UEFA commissioned a new trophy after awarding the original to Real after they won the competition for the fifth time.
The key is competition. And you can take it from wherever it comes! A closed shop may be more lucrative for the teams involved, but it wouldn’t be more competitive and so, less attractive to watch. The parameters for qualification would be vested, so teams which could have done well, e.g. by gaining entry by winning their domestic Championship, would be excluded. And for no reason other than they were undesirable in the eyes of the sponsors. And so you would get a two tier European football hierarchy, which would divide the continent and it’s teams. That would ensure division and conflict, which would not be in the best interests of football or of the game. So, inclusion is the key to competition and sporting fairness. This would ensure that the game is healthy and remains that way for the foreseeable future.