The Champions League is Rigged

We all love hearing the Champions League anthem blaring at Celtic Park. There’s nothing quite like it. It’s a musical signal that this is the big time; that sets your heart racing. This is what it’s all about. The pinnacle of club football and Celtic are in it. Every Celtic manager this century has been judged in Europe and the Champions League is where we have to be to consider ourselves, “successful.”

Ronny Deila is the only Celtic manager (Brendan hasn’t finished yet) to have a 100% league win rate. He also won the League Cup and was cheated out of a Scottish Cup Final place in his first season. Yet he was replaced because he couldn’t get us to the Champions League and his European record wasn’t good enough. In the 90’s, winning the league would have assured him of a place in Celtic folklore, but now winning it twice in a row means nothing. All that matters, apart from ten in a row (such arrogance!) is getting to the Champions League.

But getting to the Champions League isn’t really good enough either. We have to be “competitive” once we get there. We are chasing rainbows.

When Celtic won the European Cup in 1967, one Inter player, Sandro Mazzola, cost more than the entire Celtic team. Fast forward to 2017, and we’re playing teams whose most expensive players (eg Neymar), cost maybe 10 times the entire Celtic team. Even Jock Stein couldn’t have overcome those odds and we’d be wasting money if we started buying even £10m players for the Champions League.

I’ve fallen out of love with the Champions League over the past few years. I watched the first ten minutes of our matches v PSG and Bayern before switching it off. Watching Celtic get hammered is not my idea of a good night’s entertainment. I’ve sat through countless defeats, but those matches were not simple defeats. It was like watching Floyd Mayweather get pounded by Anthony Joshua. There’s no point to it.

I did though thoroughly enjoy the 3-0 win over Anderlecht and I look forward to playing them at Celtic Park in a few weeks. That’s a proper European game to me – two national champions, evenly matched and a game that could go either way.

But apart from that Pot4 v Pot3 match, I’ve little interest in our section, let alone the competition. The Champions League is rigged and it has been for years.

It’s been rigged quite deliberately and openly, and we’ve all gone along with it in the chase for the filthy lucre that goes along with qualification. No one kept it a secret that it’s been rigged. It’s been rigged to ensure that the business end will always be dominated by the same select group of teams from the same select group of countries to ensure their TV companies get to show exactly the games the viewing public of those countries want.

We all know who those teams and countries are. England, Spain, Germany and Italy are the biggest TV markets for European football. Their teams generate the biggest TV audiences and attract the most sponsorship. The Champions League is designed so that every year teams from those countries will dominate the latter stages of the competition.

This is achieved partly by having a group stage. This ensures that even if one of those teams from the Big 4 countries has an off-night, they’ll still have another couple of chances to put things right again.

Let’s take a look at the semi-finalists in the ten years before a group stage format was adopted in 1991-92.

 

Year	Semi-finalists *eventual winners	No of semi-finalists from outside Big 4	Big 4 Final
1982	Aston Villa* v Anderlecht	2	yes
	CSKA Sofia v Bayern Munich
1983	Real Sociedad v Hamburg*	1	yes
	Juventus v Widzew Lodz
1984	Liverpool* v Dinamo Bucharest	2	yes
	Dundee Utd v Roma
1985	Juventus* v Bordeaux	2	yes
	Liverpool v Panathanaikos
1986	Anderlecht v Steaua Bucharest*	3	no
	Gothenburg v Barcelona
1987	Porto* v Dynamo Kiev	2	no
	Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
1988	Real Madrid v PSV Eindhoven*	3	no
	Steaua Bucharest v Benfica
1989	Real Madrid v AC Milan*	2	no
	Steaua Bucharest v Galatasary
1990	AC Milan* v Bayern Munich	2	no
	Marseilles v Benfica
1991	Bayern Munich v Red Star Belgrade*	3	no
	Spartak Moscow v Marseilles

 

Not once in that ten year period were all four semi-finalists from the Big 4 countries. On three occasions, only ONE of the semi-finalists came from one of the Big 4 countries. In the first four years, both finalists were Big 4 clubs, but in the next six years, at least one finalist came from countries outwith the Big 4. Winners in this period came from Italy (3), England (2), Germany Romania, Portugal, Netherlands, Yugoslavia

Things began to change with the introduction of the group stages in season 1991-92. The process began gradually, but has accelerated over the last 25 years. At first, the group stages replaced the quarter-final and semi-final stages. Clubs had to get past the knock-out rounds in order to reach the group stages and qualify for the finals. This was the case for three seasons and below are the group stages in each of those seasons

Year	Group A	Group B	No of Big 4 clubs	Finalists *winner
1992	Sampdoria Red Star Belgrade Anderlecht Panathanaikos	Barcelona Sparta Prague Benfica Dynamo Kiev	2	Sampdoria v Barcelona*
1993	Marseilles Rangers Brugge CSKA Moscow	AC Milan Porto Gothenburg PSV Eindhoven	1	Marseilles* v AC Milan
1994	Barcelona Monaco Spartak Moscow Galatasary	Milan Porto Werder Bremen Anderlecht	3	Milan* v Barcelona

 

The format was tweaked in 1994 so that there was a one-legged semi-final, with the winners of each group getting to play at home. In this three year period after the introduction of a group stage, there was a maximum of three Big 4 clubs in the last eight of the competition. Two of the three finals were contested by two Big 4 clubs, but one competition was won by a non-Big 4 club, albeit a heavily bankrolled one.

In season 1994-95, the Champions League format was moved to the first round of the tournament, with the top two from each group contesting the quarter-finals. This format was in place for three seasons and the semi-finalists in each year were as follows:

Year	Semi-finalists *eventual winners	No of semi-finalists from outside Big 4	Big 4 final
1995	Bayern Munich v Ajax*	2	No
	Paris St Germain v Milan
1996	Ajax v Panathanaikos	3	No
	Juventus* v Nantes
1997	Borussia Dortmund* v Man Utd	1	Yes
	Ajax v Juventus

 

This new format still did not guarantee Big 4 dominance, and indeed 3 of the semi-finalists were non-Big 4 in 1996. Altogether, half of the semi-finalists were non-Big 4 in these three seasons, as they had been in three seasons previously.

The format was changed again for season 1997-98, and this was the first season that teams other than national champions could qualify for the tournament. This is the second method by which the tournament is rigged in favour of the Big 4. You beat Real Madrid? Let’s see if you can beat Barcelona too. The semi-finalists from that point on are as follows:

 

Year	Semi-finalists *eventual winners	No of semi-finalists from outside Big 4	Big 4 final
1998	Real Madrid* v Borussia Dortmund	1	Yes
	Juventus v Monaco
1999	Man Utd* v Juventus	1	Yes
	Dynamo Kiev v Bayern Munich
2000	Valencia v Barcelona	0	Yes
	Real Madrid* v Bayern Munich
2001	Leeds Utd v Valencia	0	Yes
	Real Madrid v Bayern Munich*
2002	Barcelona v Real Madrid*	0	Yes
	Man Utd v Bayer Leverkusen
2003	Real Madrid v Juventus*	0	Yes
	AC Milan v Inter Milan
2004	Monaco v Chelsea	2	No
	Porto v Deportivo La Coruna
2005	Chelsea v Liverpool*	1	Yes
	Milan v PSV Eindhoven
2006	Arsenal v Villareal	0	Yes
	Milan v Barcelona*
2007	Chelsea v Liverpool	0	Yes
	Man Utd v AC Milan*
2008	Liverpool v Chelsea	0	Yes
	Barcelona v Man Utd*
2009	Man Utd v Arsenal	0	Yes
	Barcelona* v Chelsea
2010	Bayern Munich v Lyon	1	Yes
	Inter Milan* v Barcelona
2011	Schalke 04 v Man Utd	0	Yes
	Real Madrid v Barcelona*
2012	Bayern Munich v Real Madrid	0	Yes
	Chelsea* v Barcelona
2013	Bayern Munich* v Barcelona	0	Yes
	Borussia Dortmund v Real Madrid
2014	Real Madrid* v Bayern Munich	0	Yes
	Atletico Madrid v Chelsea
2015	Barcelona* v Bayern Munich	0	Yes
	Juventus v Real Madrid
2016	Man City v Real Madrid*	0	Yes
	Atletico Madrid v Bayern Munich
2017	Real Madrid* v Atletico Madrid	1	Yes
	Monaco v Juventus

 

It is now 13 years since a team from outwith the Big 4 has reached the final of the Champions League. On just seven occasions since non-Champions were allowed into the tournament have teams from outwith the Big 4 gotten so far as the semi-final stage. Since 1992, a non-Big 4 club has won the Champions League on only three occasions.

This season may see Paris St Germain win the Champions League, but it won’t be a victory for meritocracy. It won’t blaze a trail for other non-Big 4 clubs. It won’t point to the possibility that teams from outwith the Big 4 can build a team to win the Champions League. All it would prove is that throwing obscene amounts of money at a club can win you the Champions League regardless of what league you play in. It’s still a rich man’s playground.

Three things ensure that TV audiences in the Big 4 countries will get what they want from the Champions League every season – non-Champion participation for select leagues, seeding, and the group stages.

Once upon a time, if you beat the Champions of Spain, you still might have the Champions of Italy, England or Germany to contend with, but with no seeding, there was a strong possibility they’d eliminate each other at some stage. This opened up the way for clubs from smaller nations. It’s not out of the question even now that they could beat Big 4 clubs in a knock-out tie. In 2006, Celtic beat Man Utd 1-0 at Celtic Park and lost 2-3 at Old Trafford. Had that been a two-legged tie, Celtic would have gone through on away goals. But because it was the group stages, Man Utd qualified along with us for the knock-out stages, and in first place, meaning they got a more favourable draw in the Last 16. We got to play Milan.

Let’s say we had knocked out Milan (and we only lost after extra-time), who would we have got in the next round? Well Milan got Bayern Munich. Others in that quarter-final draw were Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Valencia, Roma and PSV Eindhoven. Three English clubs, two Italians, one Spanish, one German and one Dutch club. So that year, just one non-Big 4 club reached even the quarter-finals. Also that year, Bayern Munich were paired with Real Madrid in the Last 16 draw, an anomaly as they were both expected to win their groups so shouldn’t have had to play each other at that stage.

So to sum up the three ways it is ensured Big 4 countries dominate the business end of the Champions League:

1)      Beat a team from one of the Big 4 countries and there are still plenty more of them in your way due to there being 3 to 4 clubs from each of them in the tournament

2)      Due to seeding, these clubs don’t often meet each other in the earlier rounds, so don’t knock each other out before the knock-out stages

3)      If one of these clubs loses matches in the group stages, they’ll still have plenty of chances to turn the situation round again.

 

In the last TEN Champions League competitions, only 15 clubs from across Europe have reached the semi-finals. Real Madrid and Barcelona lead the way with seven appearances each, while Bayern Munich have six appearances. It is now eleven years since there was a semi-final round that did not contain either Barcelona or Real Madrid.

The Champions League is rigged to ensure Big 4 clubs dominate and clubs with great historical traditions such as Celtic, Ajax, Feyenoord, Benfica, Porto,  etc get nowhere near the business end.

That’s why I have fallen out of love with the Champions League but what can we do about it?

It’s not going to happen sadly, but for me, the associations outwith the Big 4 need to stand up for themselves. They need to demand change so that their own clubs have a least a fighting chance of getting somewhere in the competition.

The first thing that needs to happen is the competition be open to Champions only. How can you call a competition, “The Champions League,” when half the teams in it are not even champions?

With only national champions involved, clubs from smaller nations will have a greater chance of reaching the latter stages. They’ll still have to beat a big gun at some point, but having done so, they won’t inevitably find themselves with another impossible task in the next round.

As the semi-final tables above show, the Big 4 countries will still win a fair proportion of titles, but the same handful of clubs won’t be able to dominate the whole competition season after season.

The next question is can we do anything about it? The answer, I think, is “yes.”

By acting collectively, the smaller associations can force change. The Big 4 want to carve the competition up between themselves, but it only has any prestige because it is a Europe wide competition.

They don’t want the tiresome task of playing the champions of Croatia in the quarter-finals, but they do need these smaller teams to be in it. They won’t be Champions of Europe if the competition only consists of clubs from four countries.

They don’t want us getting above ourselves. They don’t want to see their viewing figures drop because smaller teams are reaching the latter stages, but they do need us.

Not only would a Champions League of teams from only England, Italy, Germany and Spain not be a truly European competition and therefore far less prestigious, they’d soon get bored of playing each other all the time as well. Real Madrid v Bayern Munich is only an exciting event when they don’t play each other every season.

How much bigger a deal would a Barcelona-Chelsea Champions League Final be, if they hadn’t played each other half a dozen times in the past ten years already?

The smaller associations have more collective bargaining power than they seem to realise. If they set up a competition minus the Big 4 it would be a whole lot more interesting than a Big 4 only competition. There’d be a whole lot of huge clubs with proud histories and massive followings suddenly finding themselves with a chance of winning big deal international club competitions again. And it would be a whole lot bigger than a four nation competition.

We should demand changes be made to the Champions League to stop the Big 4 rigging the competition and not be afraid to walk away and leave them to it if they refuse.