Column: Champions League format change thoughts
The first round of qualifying got everything talking this week, which is somewhat the point. The format doesn't need a tweak, but the scheduling does.
The new(ish) UEFA Women's Champions League format has got people talking this week after Arsenal, Juventus and Levante were among those to fall in the first round of qualifiers, not even making it to next month's second round which leads into November's group stage.
Jonas Eidevall's Arsenal were semi-finalists last season, but this time around their European campaign is over after just two games thanks to a dramatic loss to French side Paris FC on penalties, off the back of an enthralling 3-3 draw.
Levante were 2-0 up before losing 3-2 to FC Twente, while Juventus also succumbed to penalties against Eintracht Frankfurt despite Lineth Beerensteyn having the chance to win it after two saves from Pauline Peyraud-Magnin.
The fact people are talking about it though is part of the wider point. Until the format change to a group stage in 2021, the qualifiers for the Champions League were something of a non-entity.
Under the previous knockout format, all the established clubs went straight into the round of 32, with the likes of VÃ¥lerenga, Benfica and Glasgow City the biggest names in low-key qualifiers which gained very little attention from a wider audience.
Split between a Champions Path and a League Path, the latter has certainly thrown up some tantalising clashes - as this week showed - but some argue it's far too early in a competition like this for such teams to be facing each other.
It is though, after all, a 'Champions' League, and while those in the Champions Path may be lesser known, they have every bit as much of a right to be there, if not more so than those who finished second or even third.
If you want to be brutal about it, if you don't want to enter this early, don't finish third.
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Competitive qualifiers can be only be good for the Champions League, as long as it doesn't dilute the quality of the group stages. It's very hard to argue it has either, given last season we had one group including Chelsea, PSG and Real Madrid, and another with Arsenal, Lyon and Juventus, and the year before a group of Wolfsburg, Juventus and Chelsea, as well as Barcelona and Arsenal paired together.
It has though opened up wider issues around how UEFA and FIFA create their schedules, a topic which is constantly close to the top of discussion lists in the women's game.
This year, the first round of qualifiers started just two and a half weeks after the World Cup final, and that's not taking into account the need to train in the build-up too.
Arsenal for example had their players involved in the final weekend of the tournament back in training just a week after they returned from Australia, such is the small gap between World Cup and qualifiers starting.
Now, you can point to the fact this was a late World Cup, not finishing until 20th August, but it raises the question of how much do FIFA and UEFA collaborate over their calendars?
It's not a one-off either. 12 months ago, Euro 2022 finished three weeks before the World Cup on 31st July, but again the Champions League qualifiers were just two and a half weeks later. Manchester City, who had a whole host of players in the successful England side, went out to Real Madrid.
Arsenal had eight players in the final weekend of the World Cup three weeks ago, several of them new signings who had little time to bed into their new club. That doesn't mean a sub-par performance should be excused, but given these were the first games for many teams, it does seem somewhat crazy clubs are playing competitive Champions League matches which their European season rides on before pre-season has barely got under way.
Eidevall and Arsenal now head to Germany for a pre-season training camp - after they've played competitive Champions League games. Whatever way you swing it, that's backwards in every sense of the word.
It's not just about Arsenal either, they just happen to be more relevant to an English football writer, but to any team who had plenty of players at a tournament who have barely had any time off. We cannot complain or fail to look for obvious answers when injuries hit hard again this season.
As a format, I like it. I like seeing good teams go against each other and being forced to qualify for not winning their domestic leagues, and I wouldn't want to see that change, but we cannot talk about welfare and then see such a tight schedule between competitions.
Why we continue to struggle with a calendar is a mystery to many. Barclays Women's Super League teams for example play 22 league games, compared to Premier League sides who play 38 and EFL sides who play 46. You could double the WSL and we'd still be two short of the EFL, yet as a calendar we are facing a situation where Champions League qualifiers involving World Cup heavy sides have to play less than three weeks after a World Cup?
The second round of qualifiers is a month away, and the group stage another month away after that, forcing it back so much the final two games are being played after Christmas in January. It does feel like this first round of qualifiers could certainly have been played at least a week later than it was.
How much do the top federations and confederations communicate over such matters, who knows? But for a second year in a row it to be agreed this is how it should look makes it feel like not a lot of care has gone into it, and while it is creating drama and talking points which we should welcome, there has to be a better solution for everybody involved, particularly in tournament years.
For me, the competition is in a good place. Needs to be remembered the World is growing the game not just the UK. The scheduling of the champions league and early international fixtures by UEFA has to be looked at and some adjustment made. Interestingly, I don't recall these concerns being raised a couple of years ago when Manchester City had 10 players go to the Olympics which meant they were impacted far more than any other club. I As you say, it is the Champions League and those who aren't champions are lucky to be in it.
Teams didn't have to pick players who played in the 3rd/4th place & the World Cup final......the respective managers, could and should have given all of those players, at least a month away from all football.
They each have academies presumably.........so why not use them, unless the respective managers do t belive in or trust the academy players at their respective clubs.......
One should always put the needs of the individual ahead of the needs of the collective (in this case, the club), by not doing so, the respective managers, like for example Jonas, they are doing a complete diss-serive to each player that needs the proper rest, especially mentally.
We are talking about flying thousands of miles from Australia/New Zealand, just to play in a Champions League qualification game(s), sorry but those games are insignificant and irrelevant to a players mental and physical health.
The managers here, who picked said players are the ones in the wrong here, they need to be criticised for their selfish decisions to pick the players, rather than totally rest them.
In terms of the format itself, would really be talking about it, of Arsenal had made the group stages??
No.......I don't think that we would........it is just purely reactionary, due to Arsenal going out, nothing more than that.
The world doesn't and shouldn't resolve around what Arsenal do or do not achieve, and changes shouldn't be made to suit them.
If they want to be in the group stages, simple idea, then win the WSL, or bring in better players than the ones that couldn't beat Paris FC.........but hey, call me crazy there, as the ones that they did pick or bring into the club, sure were not good enough......