A thread on the Crystal Palace's Europa League demotion, outlining:
1) Why Palace broke the multi-club ownership rules 2) Why Palace's appeal had little chance of success 3) How precedent was key 4) Why the Forest Blind Trust was an irrelevance 5) Contradictions
A lot of the coverage has, understandly, centred around Palace's case to get the ruling overturned.
Yet if you are to understand the story, you need to know the background.
And for that, UEFA's 2023 European Club Finance and Investment Landscape Report is very important.
One of the findings of that report was that 33% of clubs from the "Top Five" leagues form part of wider multi-club structures.
It added that:
“The rise of multi-club investment has the potential to pose a material threat to the integrity of European club competitions”.
UEFA has confirmed the seeding rule for the QF and SF of its competitions, including Champions League, for next season.
We knew draws were to be removed for QF and SF, but not the specifics of how the home team in the second legs would be determined.
Good one for Arsenal fans.
Key theory:
Teams ranked 1-4 guaranteed to be at home in the QF.
Teams ranked 1-2 guaranteed to be at home in the SF.
However, if any of 1-4 are knocked out, seeding is not recalculated. Home advantage is effectively tied to the result of the round of 16, and then QF.
Therefore, even though Arsenal (3rd place) played PSG (15th place) in the semifinals, Arsenal would NOT be seeded at play the second leg at home if the same were to happen next season.
PSG have priority in the SF as they took the right off Liverpool (1st) by knocking them out.
Last season, Pot 1 teams played eight games in the league phase against English clubs.
They recorded recorded two wins, a draw and five losses.
This season, the 6 must play 12 games to meet the draw constraints caused by 6 Prem teams in the comp + 3 in Pot 1.
Under usual circumstances the composition of the draw pots doesn't matter anymore.
But this year, (for instance) Barcelona and Real Madrid may be forced to play Totttenham or Newcastle as one team from Pot 3 and 4, rather than, say, Slavia Prague or Bodo/Glimt, etc.
🔺 How the 31 teams qualified
🔺 Inter Miami and Messi?
🔺 The old Club World Cup still exists!
🔺 Will it be competitive?
🔺 Player burnout?
🔺 Format
🔺 Match dates
🔺 Draw on Thursday
🔺 Venues
🔺 Trophy
- No group can feature more than one team from the same confederation except UEFA, with 12 teams
- Pot 1 will have paired seedings based on the confederation rankings
- Pot 1 teams go to position 1
- Inter Miami will play the opening match
The full match schedule comprising the stadium and kick-off time for each fixture will be finalised and published once the draw has taken place, taking into account a range of factors including sporting and player-centric criteria, local and fans and broadcast considerations.