I do. Much more than the CL as the CL is mostly down to luck, having a good day (if you have 1 bad day you are out even if you are vastly superior team than your opponent - see the Roma game last year and 100's of others in recent memory for reference), getting the right draws and referees at the right time etc. Not to mention that UEFA is a deeply corrupt entity.
I also don't think that the World Cup is the pinnacle of football either as claimed due to popular opinion. It was 40-50 years ago. Not any longer. According to simpletons, Messi is half of the player because he was a Higuaín miss away from winning the World Cup and having no Eder to save his day. In no other sport (tennis, basketball) is there so much luck and coincidence involved. That is why you play best of 7 games. Not best of 2 games as even the worst team can fluke 2 lucky wins in a row. When it rains while playing Tennis, the game is stopped. When there is water on a basketball field the game is immediately stopped and a mop is used to remove it. In football however you can play a CL-semifinal on a potato field (Vicente Calderón). That's a huge joke.
Half of the CL (group stages) is a complete and utter borefest. Half of the tournament.
Why is a knockout competition more "exciting"? Because there is more of the luck factor involved? Is that what it is about?
CL's fame is a rather new thing. It was not like this 30 year ago. In fact the UEFA Cup of old was a stronger tournament just 25 years ago as more elite clubs participated in it. The CL was only league champions. Since there was/are only a handful of good leagues, 2/3's of the teams back then were scrubs from obscure leagues which explains the absurd results if you study that tournament from the very beginning until the 1990's. Eventually the biggest teams with the most money and from the best leagues tended to win but there was not this gap in terms of level as there is today.
Winning the CL is nice (in particular as we can only win it when we are truly the best team in Europe, not like RM who can fluke it like seen so many times in history - 1998, 2000, 2002, 2016, 2018) but a lot of the hype is due to the marketing, the luck factor and it being the only competition where top clubs from different countries can play against each other. In reality it has been the same elite dominating (4-5 clubs) with the odd surprise each decade.
If people love the knockout games so much they should create a CL league format and a lesser important CL knockout format. A bit like a domestic league (with an equal playing field in the sense that everyone meets the same opponents home and away) and the CdR which is different.
Anyway this comment is not due to being bitter as I have witnessed 4 CL wins in 13 seasons and obviously my views won't change should we win this year which is a possibility. I just don't like the format as I don't think that it is remotely close to finding the truly best team in Europe in a given season. A league format would do a much better job of that hence why I prefer it. It is also much more fair and I prefer fair competition. Too much unfair competition and you end up like the Ligue 1 or Serie A or Bundesliga.
Since only elite clubs would be playing in the CL (not like today where 1/3 of the teams are scrub teams and a waste of time) in such a league format, home and away, the luck and "unfair factor" would be far less. Not sure why the excitement would be less though. It would be pure top games of the highest quality. What is not to like? Or do people prefer watching City destroy Schalke or Real destroy Ajax or Lyon being destroyed by us?
I also forgot to mention the speculation that knockout games create and most teams play destructive/passive football as a consequence. How many times have I seen football games (in the CL) where the opposition team is buried in their own half 80% of the time. That's not exciting football. Similar with the many borefest games in the World Cup and EURO's. Did anyone enjoy Portugal's win in 2016? Not many other than Portuguese people and C. Ronaldo fanboys, I imagine.
Upsets are nice and all. I like them to from time to time. Unpredictability is what makes football what it is. It's a rare trade for such a popular sport. However the Champions League (supposed elite competition) should reflect this elite by being turned into a league format where only elite clubs are participating. Where elite playing conditions (the state of the pitch) reflects the elite nature of the competition. So should the referees. That VAR was not implemented ages ago (despite the technology being available) is a huge scandal quite frankly. Every stadium should have the exact same conditions. One team should not be playing on a potato field while another escapes that "excitement".
A Super League in other words or Europe's version of the NBA. I have no doubt that it will one day occur and then people will be thinking why the current CL format lasted this long and why people wasted 2/3 of their time during the tournament watching scrubs play against non-scrubs.
Football needs urgent reforms. CL is one of the tournaments that is badly in need of it as I see it. Each to his own though but I have argued why I have the views that I have and then people can make up their own minds. I am not writing this to convince anybody but I know that millions of football fans agree with my views.
Come now, even you dont believe that league play is as exciting as a knockout format, nobody does.
Now, just because its the most thrilling tournament doesnt mean that its objectively speaking the best, league format will more often than not find the best team, while CL/WC is more random.
I find it funny, however, that nobody spoke about this before, before RM won a few in a row, but that can be another discussion.
The group stages are rather boring, maybe something should be changed when it comes to to that, im a firm believer in the knockouts, its a true and tested format.
You want a CL league format, and a "lesser important" CL knockout format? How very nice of you.
Nobody would care about the "lesser important" CL knockouts anymore, and what about EL then? Its a big enough tournament for many clubs, but it would basically no longer matter, as the "lesser CL-knockout stages" would become the new EL, while Barca, Bayern and Juve would grind it out in a rather boring 38 game season(The greater CL competition).
Funny that you whine about scrub teams, when the format of league winners would bring plenty of scrubs along the way(while ignoring plenty of good teams in big leagues), in what world would it make sense to ignore the runner-ups of LL, PL and Serie A, compared to the winner of some forgotten league in some forgotten country?
Speculations and destructive football is part of the game, always has been, always will be, both in league and CL, so that one doesnt really fly.
I have already stated that VAR is a welcome addition to CL, but besides that, i think the CL-knockouts should be kept as they are, more or less.
But football leaks has shown that UEFA is considering a "super league", which means you probably soon will have your wish, a Bayern/Barca/Juventus grinding battle over a whole season, congrats.
