re: Should Cup winners get a spot in the Champions League?

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I also normally only hear the winners of the tourneys as "FA cup winner" or "FA cup holder", not normally the "FA cup champion".

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Now that right there is semantics at its finest

I don't really have a position on this, I just think it's an interesting thing to talk about.

This will never happen, but I wish they would add another team or two from each of the major leagues. If you're really trying to have a tournament with the best teams in Europe, you would think the 5th or 6th place teams from England or Spain are better than, say, the champions from Romania or Belgium.

They used to have a tournament like this. It was called the European Cup Winner's Cup or some shite. And then they realized it was stupid.

Also, if they let the FA Cup winner into the CL, some team could get a lucky draw every round. You could end up with some shite team like Hull City who had possibly the easiest draw of FA Cup history last year.

FA Cup winner vs. 4th place for a spot in the CL. If FA Cup winner was already top 4 then 4th place goes auto.

Would add one extra awesome game to the schedule.

That would definitely be interesting. Fight for the CL spot over Europa.

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I don't really get more excited thinking about Everton or Tottenham bringing a second-string squad to the tournament.

It's a tournament for Champions, not necessarily for the best teams. It's already diluted enough as it is.

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Yeah, I kind of agree.

However, I would like to see one big change: include any of the final 4 of Europa League that don't qualify through league play. Winner (to group stage) and any of final 3 to CL playoff at descending stages. However, cut it off at the final four only meaning 5th place doesn't get in even if teams above them qualify through their league tables.

That would mean that usually only 1-2 extra teams make it.


This really isn't about the CL for me though but simply about turning Europa League into a bit bigger deal.

I think anything the smaller league teams may lose by having a couple of slightly better teams in the CL field would be more than offset by the increased TV deals/exposure the EL would get since the smaller leagues would have more teams there anyway.

I really want to like the EL more and it's already a lot more entertaining than the majority of CL matches but the CL$ chance would mean more teams really go for it.