The Decline of the European Cup

Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version Translate Topic

   The specific thread for the 2019 Champions League Final has become side-tracked (inc by me  ) into a discussion over the merits/demerits of the top European club tournament since it became the "Champions League" in 1992/93.
In particular, it is believed that the CL has deteriorated since it has become dominated by the same old 10 or 12 wealthy clubs (or 4 or 5 countries) who are now guaranteed to produce the winner each year.

I have a lot of sympathy with that, even despite supporting a "new" team who could conceivably do it this year!

But that all said, I'm not sure that the old competition was quite so wonderful as fading, but nostalgic memories might allow, so I've taken a look at the record books.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The (old) European Cup ran from 1956 until 1992 - 37 editions. 

It had 19 unique winners, from 9 different countries, with the number of total wins (and number of unique winners) as follows:

Spain - 7 wins, 2 teams (Real and Barca);

Portugal - 3 wins, 2 teams (Benfica and Porto);

Italy - 7 wins, 3 teams (Milan, Inter, Juve);

Scotland - 1 win (Celtic. Obviously);

England - 8 wins, 4 teams (Man U, Liverpool, Forest, Villa);

Netherlands - 5 wins, 3 teams (Feyenoord, Ajax, PSV);

Germany - 4 wins, 2 teams (Bayern, Hamburg);

Romania - 1 win (Steaua);

Yugoslavia - 1 win (Red Star). 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since it became the CL from 1992/93, the competition has had 12 unique winners over 26 editions, from 7 different countries, as follows:

France - 1 win (Marseille);

Italy - 5 wins, 3 teams (Milan, Inter, Juve);

Netherlands - 1 win (Ajax);

Germany - 3 wins, 2 teams (Dortmund, Bayern);

Spain - 11 wins, 2 teams (RM, Barca);

England - 4 wins, 3 teams (MU, Liverpool, Chelsea);

Portugal - 1 win (Porto).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On the face of it, there is nearly as much "variation" in the CL and with the old EC.

As against that, most of the new faces etc in the CL were in the early years, in recent years the competition has become more confined.

That said, maybe the very recent years of Spanish domination of the CL is little different from the early years of Spanish domination of the EC, and will fade similarly?

If this latter, might it be replaced by a period of English domination, as we saw in the late 70's/early 80's, with a similar variety of new teams (M.City? Spurs? Arsenal, even?) as we saw then?

Of course, the big factor these days is money, with more and more being concentrated in the hands of a few teams/leagues, the fear being that the competition will be progressively dominated by those teams, who are busy drawing the ladder up behind them to prevent anyone else from breaking in.

Alternatively, who's to say some new oligarchs won't buy into new teams elsewhere (France? Russia? Netherlands? Portugal? Turkey?) and put up a challenge in the way that PSG are (still) trying to do?

I'm not sure, really. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_Cup_and_UEFA_Champions_League_finals

P.S. I must have got my stats wrong (above), since I somehow omitted Leeds United...

Edited by Territorial - 13 May 2019 at 7:13pm