Money for Auld Firm - The Euro Vase

It's still August, and before a ball has been kicked in the Domestic leagues in most of Europe, Glasgow Rangers are already out of European competition, courtesy of an away defeat to FC Kaunas of Lithuania last night.  Great news for those of us in Manchester who were party to their travelling "fans" antics last year.

The questions this raises are far more important than the trivial issues that have been voiced so far regarding the impact of Rangers missing out on the £12 million their rivals Celtic will get for just reaching the Champions League group stages.

What we should be asking ourselves is how a team finishing 2nd in their Domestic league (and last season reaching the UEFA cup final) can find themselves cast out of Europe by a team from a place where the national sport is basketball . 

And how on earth can this remotely value the UEFA cup and Scottish league when Aston Villa look likely to qualify for that competition with ease through the Intertoto Cup despite finishing only 6th in the English Premiership.  And Liverpool will no doubt qualify for the Champions League through one tie again, despite finishing only 4th.

A drastic overhaul of European competition is required, making sense of the handicapping system known as the co-efficient, used by UEFA to determine at what level each team (who aren't Champions of the country) join the competition.  

The old cup winners cup at least provided interest for those sides who had a knockout pedigree, and meant they wouldn't get drawn against a top 4 side who'd dropped out of the Champions League - as per Rangers last year.  The UEFA cup is a joke, with intelligible group stages requiring 1 win from 4 games to get through in some cases.  How this is meant to convince punters a meaningful competition is taking place is beyond me.

At any rate, The Champions League, in its current format, becomes more successful every year and the fat cats get ever fatter.  What we need to think of is how to encourage new competition in the closed shop of the top 4.  Look at what happened to Leeds after Champions League funding was missed out upon?  Who's to say that an Arsenal or Liverpool wouldn't find themselves in a similar spot if they had a difficult draw in qualifying.  British teams have always rated the home league championship as the main point of the season - but there is a worry that a top 4 slot is now the main prize and the riches of Europe have replaced the glory of lifting the Championship in May.  I'd love to see a return to those days of touch and go championships and less emphasis on ensuring qualification for continental competitions.