we all love the champions league don't
we
top football the greatest players
in the game producing the biggest and
best drama
noblemen and kings it's hollywood it's a
soap opera on the biggest sporting stage
of all
and the whole world is watching
challenging for the crown hey i'm not
singing the anthem
but the champions league is flawed it's
becoming boring
and utterly unfair and here's why a
chance to win the champions league is
only reserved for the elite
clubs in the past five years only two
teams have won it
and both are from spain real madrid have
won
three champions league titles in a row
four in the last five okay so they
hardly look like title favorites again
this year fair enough but even if they
don't win it it'll no doubt just go to
one of the other elite
clubs barcelona juventus bayern maybe
had so many beers last night the point
is only a handful of clubs ever win the
champions league these days
five or six teams the elite clubs the
mega clubs with all the cash the
champions league is just too predictable
the last time an underdog lifted the
title was 2004
that's 14 years ago that's an eternity
in football years porto were the winners
that
year remember that an incredible story a
team of nobodies
coached by uh who was that again the
special one
jose mourinho of course but could
anybody repeat that feat today
and lead an underdog team to glory no
matter
what stands in your way no chance times
have
changed teams used to surprise us
borussia dortmund
97 what a surprise that was iax 95
that was an incredible team marseille 93
with rudy fowler up front
and if we go back a little further
before it was known as the champions
league
teams like red star belgrade stale
bucharest hamburg
aston villa nottingham forest celtic
benfica these are all teams which have
lifted a european cup
no i'm not singing it i mean i could
sing the champions league song
this is the reason you have been born
doesn't mean i'm going to clubs which
once lifted the famous trophy
and now light years away from lifting it
again but why is that
it's all about the money every year
uefa the organization which runs the
champions league
distributes nearly 2 billion euros to
the 32 participating clubs and here's
how it works
first we have the prize money which
makes up 55 percent
then there's a newly introduced 10-year
coefficient ranking
30 and then you have the so-called tv
rights
or market pool the final 15
it's complicated but here is the
crucial point
the money is not spread fairly let's
take the prize money for example
a club which exits at the group stage is
guaranteed around 15 million euros
the winner of the competition gets over
70 million
seems fair right the winner deserves a
big chunk for winning the competition
but the gap is too big 55 million euros
55 million euros buys an elite club an
average
champions league player in today's
market but these are players the likes
of iax
marseille and dortmund can only dream of
buying
they would never spend 55 million euros
on a single player
i'm not doing the anthems you are the
chosen one
no but that's not all of course
there's the tv money which rewards the
biggest clubs
but then there's the new 10-year
co-efficient ranking
now uefa introduced this to keep the big
clubs happy
they get more money for their
performances over a 10-year period
let's take a closer look the higher your
ranking the more money you get
there we go real barcelona bayern the
teams with the best squads and the most
success
in the champions league over the last 10
years have been handed an even
bigger advantage over the chasing pack
dortmund germany's second
biggest club way down in 17th
iacs the biggest club in the netherlands
21st
marseille winners back in 93 way down
in 29 the biggest and most successful
clubs are taking home the vast majority
of that juicy champions league money
they've created a brutal system
which only rewards themselves let's take
a look at that pie again
they make it far in the champions league
and then they benefit from that
via prize money and the 10-year
coefficient ranking
the champions league has become a cash
cow for europe's elite clubs
it's the reason juventus can sign mr
champions league cristiano ronaldo
and hand him 20 million euros a year
in wages that's more than victoria
pilsen spend on their entire squad i
don't want to sing
i'm not really i don't i don't do opera
i just do
crooning the choice is not josh and of
course pilsen aren't alone in that
we all know what the champions league
draw looks like players like totty
fat ronaldo figo pulling little balls
out of a hat
you know what it looks like this is how
the champions league groups are decided
uefa divides
all of the champions league participants
into four pots
now pot four contains all of the lowest
ranked teams in the champions league
that season
just twenty percent of teams in pot four
make it through to the knockouts
whereas in part one you get nine out of
ten teams making it through
it's becoming far too predictable with
the same teams making it through to the
knockout rounds
every year teams in part one think real
madrid
barcelona bryan munich juventus
have an easier draw they're more likely
to make it through to the knockouts
making it through to the knockouts means
a better coefficient score
which in turn means more cash and that's
before you even factor in the prize
money
so these clubs inevitably keep their
elite status and make their way back
into pot one the following year it's a
vicious
circle so as long as the rich keep
getting richer
nothing is going to change the same
clubs make it to the latter stages
every single year it's become far too
boring and it's a big problem for the
champions league
so it's no surprise that there are talks
about a european super league
just think about it a league reserved
for the truly elite
to compete against each other and make
more money just
among themselves but of course this
would mean there'd be no more small
clubs
no more pilsen or red star belgrade or
slightly bigger teams like ix or
marseille
perhaps even no borussia dortmund and of
course
no more fairy tale stories like porto in
2004
so we want to hear what you guys think
would you like to see a european super
league
has the champions league lost its magic
and what can a smaller team do
to try and break the mould and win it
this year tell us what you guys think in
the comments
no i don't want to sing the anthem
mate i'm not singing the answer
sacrifice
[Music]
that's not going in you're not putting