calscot 0 Posted November 2, 2007 Share Posted November 2, 2007 Here's some reasoning I think they used behind the invites for full members: Top 5 countries to increase to four members next two (Netherlands and Portugal to have 2) next 14 countries to have 1. The UEFA rankings are taken from the end of the 2006/2007 season. Spanish members: Top 4 in the league last year and top 4 in UEFA rankings: Real Madrid, Barca, Sevilla, Valencia Italian members: Top 4 in UEFA rankings and 1st, 2nd and 4th in league last year plus Juve. Lazio were 3rd last year but Juventus and Milan were already members and have much higher UEFA coeffs - 133 and 91 to 51. Milan, Inter, Juve, Roma English members: Top 4 in the league last year and top 4 in UEFA rankings. Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal French members: Top 2 in league and top 3 in UEFA rankings plus PSG who are already members. Monaco invited despite having poor seaon but have 2nd best UEFA ranking and have a good historical domestic record. Lyon, Marseille, PSG, Monaco German Members: Already had three members and invited Bremen at 3rd instead of Stuttgart 1st and Shalke 2nd. Fair to say Bremen have been better on average over recent years and have a bigger UEFA ranking. Munich, Leverkusen, Dortmund, Bremen Portugal: Porto already a member and 1st in league and top in ranking, invited Benfica 3rd over Sporting 2nd. Benfica consistently higher than Sporting and also have much better UEFA ranking Porto, Benfica Netherlands: Ajax and PSV already members. No invites. Both these top two last year in league and top two in ranking. Ajax, PSV Greece: Invited Olympiakos who were champs but second to Panathanaikos in rankings. Not sure who has won the league previously. Assume Panathanaikos may be invited as associate member. Olympiakos Russia: Invited CSKA who are champs and top of rankings. CSKA Romania: Invited Steaua 2nd over Dinamo champs. Steaua have much higher ranking and I would guess won more leagues recently. Rapid or dinamo may get associate membership. Scotland: Invited Celtic, who are champs for two years and have higher ranking. Rangers have higher ranking from this year and invited as associate member. Can't really argue here as the timing is bad for us. If they were sending the invites next year and we had won the league, that coupled with being higher in ranking would probably have swung it our way. Celtic Belgium: Invited Anderlecht who are champs but second to Brugge (3rd) in rankings by small amount. Assume Brugge will get Associate membership. Czech: Spara Prague invited as champs and best ranking. Slavia may get associate. Turkey: Fenerbahce invited as champs and 2nd best ranking. Besiktas 2nd in league but better ranking so may get associate. Switzerland: Basle - only 2nd in league but best by miles in ranking - 55 to 10. Probably won the league a few times recently. BulgariaL Levski - champs and best ranking. Norway Rosenborg - no brainer. Austria Vienna despite being second but have best ranking and won the league a few times lately. Etc You can see the pattern and there are some teams who are not champs who get the invite probably for winning the league the most times recently and having the best UEFA ranking. Basically Celtic have won the league last season, the season before and have 5 out of 7. They also had the best UEFA ranking last season although we have now overtaken them in that respect and could be 25 places above them by the end of next season. We're only the 11th best country so not much chance of getting two teams in. They had to choose one, and fair play to Celtic they deserve it at this moment in time. However I think Rangers could be the more deserving club in a couple years time but that's just too late and our hard cheese. However, I think associates will have as big a say but no vote. Celtic will have one vote out of about 100 as the bigger countries' teams are rumoured to be getting 4 votes each. So while it's good to have a vote, it's not very powerful to just have one. In the end, not much difference and when you think about it, the reasoning is to stop dissent against plans for the big countries' big teams while only giving the smaller countries a token say in things. The teams from the smaller countries are probably going to find a conflict of interests and members and should probably really be starting their own pressure group. They are being dazzled by the offer of friendship by the big, rich and famous, but then may pay for it by not being able to stand up for themselves. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craig 5,199 Posted November 2, 2007 Share Posted November 2, 2007 You could be right Calscot, Bain said yesterday that it is based on the last 5 years domestic record which is why Celtic got in and we didnt. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
calscot 0 Posted November 4, 2007 Share Posted November 4, 2007 shit, they only won 3 - 2, thanks again, msr Le Guen. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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