In defence of this approach

If you just had a random knockout draw after the league stage, there would be very little incentive to finish as high as possible. 24 of the 36 teams progress, so for alot of teams, the last three games could be entirely pointless and that would be alot of games with nothing riding on them.

One other thing I noticed is that each European competition will now have its own single night each week - so the UCL will no longer be on Tuesday and Wednesday. Is that really in the big clubs' interests?

Then again, the Europa League is definitely more interesting these days and perhaps UEFA recognise that.

Posted By: norwaay, Mar 13, 10:59:19