What do you think the point of the UCL should be?
To determine the best national champion in Europe. It's even in the name, yet teams like Bayer Leverkusen are in it almost regularly.
There is a reason why the same teams go far in the competition. Because they're the best.
They're the best because they have the most money. They have the most money because they regularly get TV money for UCL participation, and they can get the best players because they can make a safe bet on playing Champions' League every season. It's circular reasoning.
While I like the surprise factor of random draws up to some point, I don't think the champion should be decided on just how lucky they got in the draw.
If you don't have fair draws, you degrade the not-so-prominent teams to decoration, like it's now in the group phase. In most cases, anyway. Of course they still have a chance to beat the big shots, because in the end, it's decided on the pitch.
I think you are missing my main point: Being in an international competition, much more the Champions' League, should be something that's not a given, never, for any club or player. The current system does exactly the opposite for the top clubs. How often do you hear something along the lines of "I want to play UCL regularly" from a footballer, him then going to Real or Bayern or something? These guys take it as a given that being in one those clubs practically gives them the right to play Champions League.
the UEFA Cup I consider a lesser competition than the UEL
Why? Because of the group phase that's ensuring that everyone once there gets at least six games and thus more money guaranteed? On a lower scale, it's the exact same thing as the Champions' League: Guaranteed money to make sure the teams get more of a head start on their national competition for next year.
We have a situation that quite a few national leagues, most prominent the so-called "top" leagues in England, Spain and Italy, are incredibly unbalanced because a few teams can plan with playing at least half the season in Champions' League every year. And that is not good.
Of course, the incredibly loose regulations and even weaker enforcement regarding financially sane behaviour play a rather big role, too. The "financial fairplay" campaign would be a big step in the right direction if it were more than empty words. But with FIFA being FIFA and UEFA being UEFA, I don't believe it is.
There is a modern competition that is extremely hard to enter and is technically the ultimate club competition, the Club World Cup. Everybody knows how much interest it gathers...
Well, the attention of most football fans is focused on national or continental competitions. The World Cup for nations is what exceeds that. Most people don't know enough of foreign-continent leagues to get interested in having one of theirs play against somewone from the other end of the world. From a European perspective, anyway.
The UEL is still a pretty secondary competition compared to the national league for many
Of course the national league is more important. There's where the history is, that's where the rivalries are, that's where you play every week. Europe is a bonus.
