Man U v Barca

[Arginald Valleywater]

Well the TV execs and UEFA look like their wish for the perfect sellable final is coming true...wonder how these two were never allowed to meet in any of the knockout stages? Ah Sepp the Lyon v Shaktar Final is not selling well, and hang on lets massage the draw.

[Flat_Eric]

Since the moneymen and TV moguls took over and turned the European Cup into the "Champions League", binned the Cup Winners Cup and (most recently) transformed the UEFA Cup into the "Europa League", European football hasn't been the same. The magic has gone out of it.

It was far better when anyone could be drawn against anyone else and it was straight two-leg knockout up to the final.

Now, the seeding system virtually guarantees that the "biggest" (i.e. most "marketable") teams will advance to the latter stages and that a Belgian Sunday League side, a Swedish pub team or a bunch of Romanian railway workers (think Bruges, think Malm?, think Steaua Bucharest) have virtually no chance of winning European football's biggest prize or even progressing beyond the group stages.

I still watch the finals, but more out of curiosity rather than really caring a toss about who wins. Even if an "English" teams gets there. That is if you can even call any of the big Premiership sides "English" any more, given that for the most part they're packed to the rafters with foreign mercenaries and managers, and in foreign ownership.

- Eric

[Bob Singleton]

Perhaps this years final will be decided by judges rather than goals...

5.4 5.4 5.6 5.8 5.4 for that dive by Nani !whistle!

[Arginald Valleywater]

It will be a decent game considering the talent on show but the idea that Stoke could get to the FA Cup Final is just not possible in the CL seeding system.