Amputate the Champions League

It may sound a little drastic, but it’s about time UEFA chopped one of the legs off of the Champions League playoff format. There are a few reasons for this, with the main one being better games for the fans. Because of the two-legged system you’ll often see away teams playing for draws. Hell, if they score an away goal, you’ll even see some teams happy with a loss. Rarely does an away team go out to win a game, and if they do, it’s usually a fluke. For example, a 10-man Manchester United squad was quite happy to take off from Rome last night with a 2-1 loss. I feel sorry for the fans who made their way to Italy to watch a team whose only goal was to score a goal. In a two-legged system the games don’t become interesting until the second match. Most first legs become snoozefests or all out wars between the restless fans. Again, we go back to last night in Rome, where the Italian riot police became so bored with the game, they decided to beat the hell out of the English supporters in the stadium. A one game winner-take-all set up would make for exciting games and not exhibitions of keep-away. Cutting down on the number of Champions League games should also silence well known whiners such as Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, who’s always crying about the crowded fixture list. So, you ask, what’s the solution to this dilemma of uninspired games? Well if you think hard, what’s more boring than the first leg of a Champions League playoff game? If you answered a Champions League group stage game, you’re right on the money. The group stages are often decided after the first few games and the rest of the matches are about as exciting as a wet Sunday. The way to solve this problem is to make every game mean something. If one leg is amputated from the playoff matches you may ask which team gets the game. This is where the group stage comes in. Make the teams earn the right to host knockout-stage games. The team that has the best record in the group stage gets to hold the playoff game at home. This will give everybody incentive to win each contest and to score as many goals as possible. The top team in the group stages would then earn home field advantage throughout the playoffs until the Cup final. If you really want to liven things up, let them play the final at home too. The amount of games will be cut down, crowd trouble will be cut down, and excitement levels will be raised. This will also make the Champions League more prestigious. Of course it will never happen though, because money talks and we all know that Europe’s major soccer teams are hurting for cash.