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Revamping European Football schedule - a thought experiment

The idea is simple - play one tournament at a time instead of multiplexing several tournaments through the course of the year.


Let's take the example of a typical top tier EPL/LaLiga club schedule and see how this can work. Competitions:
1 - League (=EPL/LaLiga/BundesLiga/SerieA, etc),
2 - Cup (=FA Cup+League Cup/Copa Del Rey, etc),
3 - European Competition (=UCL/UefaCup etc)


Assuming a 20 team league,
you will have 38 league matches
FA Cup + League Cup = ~10 matches (if you reach final)
European Competition = 13 matches (if you reach final in UCL)
Noise matches (Super Cups, World Club Cups/Intercontinental Cups/Intl friendlies, qualifiers, etc) = x [we will get to this later] = total of 61 matches!!!! (+x) ... That's a lot of matches!
Not to mention if you have to play in qualifiers for europe, had to qualify for the league, play in Europa, etc etc


Also, if you see, the season basically starts mid-August and runs till the end of May which is a duration of 9.5 months, therefore leaving 2.5 months of "rest" till the next season begins which includes actual rest + worldcup/euro + preseason tours/training.


I propose a simpler setup:
Have only league matches at a time, then have only the Cups, then have only the European competition - this will provide for a great buildup too.


With the normal schedule of playing an extra midweek game every other week, you get 1.5 games per week and for 38 league matches that's 25.33 weeks, basically 26 weeks, which in a 52 week year is basically 6 months. So if you start the league at the start of September, you end it with a league champion crowned at the end of February.

Now you have your 3 months for your local Cup competitions and subsequent European competition in May, both as proper self contained tournaments much like a World Cup/Euro Championship.

Now we can address the "x" matches, these matches should really be used as warmup tournaments for the start of the next season. These should be merged with "preseason". I mean really, no one cares about these competitions anyway so why don't we make them useful and use them as preseason warmups before the next season and as bonus the winners get a shiny trophy (which EVERYONE agrees is meaningless anyway). The other teams can schedule their own preseason matches every season with each other if they know they will not be involved.

I propose we also push ALL international football to the summer - anyway UEFA/FIFA hold their tournaments in the summer. Now there is less irritation between club and country. Yes I know this opens its own can of worms (maybe I should tackle this in a separate post)

Also, the transfer window should open only after the European competition ends and shut before the Leagues begin.

The benefits of this format:
1 - The HUGE benefit in this scenario is that a new exciting team like Borussia Dortmund which has a good season does not have to lose its best players to Real Madrid / Manchester City and then get thumped in the Champions League in the new season - fans get to see the same squad that won the league compete in Europe
2 - You also avoid the farcical situation where Liverpool won the 2005 Champions League but did not qualify for it (for the next year) through domestic qualification (finished outside the top 4) and so silly exceptions had to be made - basically the positive/negative effects of your results/performance in your local league in a particular season are immediate in Europe in the very same season.
3 - Another big win is that teams now don't have to sacrifice one competition for the other, they don't have to worry about resting their best players for the lowly premier league match against Norwich at the weekend so that they can keep them fresh for Barca during midweek - teams will be more inclined to play their best players on a more continuous basis; and really if they choose to "rest" some players, then the effects will only be felt in the current tournament/competition - you eliminate another tournament as an externality.
4 - The season is progressive and easy to follow (I know...this is basically a "meh" point :))
5 - A follow on point from 3 above is that this system makes it easier for teams with smaller squads to compete. Therefore City/United/Chelsea/Liverpool/Arsenal don't get any major benefit from using their money to have insanely huge squads. If a small squad can stay healthy, they can compete on all fronts in this system because frankly, its just one assault at a time right :)
6 - My hope is that with this format you could have the UCL be staged in a World Cup type of atmosphere where all eyes in Europe are focused intensely on this competition from start to end continuously - simply because all the matches will now be held in close succession and the tournament will be more condensed
7 - Now there is no longer the factor of players being transferred based on "guaranteed champions league football"; basically now in the new season you transfer to a club where you HOPE to get Champions League football. For example, as things stood at the start of this season, any player joining Arsenal knows that its quite likely they won't qualify for Europe (UCL) at the end but they still get to play in the Champions League THIS season (Arteta) - that will no longer be the case - conversely you don't get to wait to join a club once they secure Champions League qualification - you join only on the HOPE that they will
8 - Football Associations now don't have to worry about conflicts in the fixture list with another competition - they are given an appropriate timeslot in the year in which they can freely choose the schedule for their competition

The Flaws as I see them:
1 - There is no real football to look forward to for the bottom tier of teams after February is there? They have no chance in the cups (early exits), they don't play in Europe and then they get to start only in September, this is a 6 month break (between official matches) for their players which might be unacceptable, but like, it works for the NFL right?
2 - An add-on to the previous point which is that these long breaks between season end and season start could be economically unviable for the smaller clubs, maybe I don't know/understand the reasons for why football clubs have based their business on running year-round
3 - It seems based on the current schedules that the weekend belongs to the national leagues and European competitions are restricted to midweek (only the final is held on a weekend, and that too has happened only in the last 2 years); not sure if there is a reason for this restriction (probably just historical - each country had its own league, and it was natural for players to play on the weekend when everyone has time to watch...over time the extra competitions were accommodated midweek)

Note: I know, football is only growing more and more popular (televised, live, etc) and there is no need for this format - again I say that I recognize all that but what I want to say is that it seems that inspite of how amazing things are at the moment, I see problems which I argue are because of the way matches are scheduled and tournament entrants are decided; and further I feel that with the new format, these problems can be eliminated.

I don't know if there are others out there who like me are not fans of the European football schedule the way it is right now - I think its just a sorry mix of too many competitions
This post does not take into account several realities of the way clubs and football associations decide fixtures and work with local governments/authorities to arrange them, in that respect yes its remarkably naive.
Basically think of this more as a thought experiment rather than a genuine, well thought out, well reasoned and well planned post
Also, when I say European Football I am basically thinking of the Premiership and La Liga; and when I say Premiership and La Liga, I basically mean the Premiership :P

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