Seems that Liverpools late addition could mean a loss of £20 million (5mil each) to Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea and Everton so maybe the outward support some of them have shown might be missing at board level? There also still seems to be plenty of reluctance to change the rules at UEFA despite some public pressure and, to be fair, it is very understandable once we put ourselves in their position.
They structure a competition based on the qualifying teams from all the Euro leagues with the numbers from each league allocated.
In case of a major cock-up they stick in a get -out clause which allows the individual countries FA's the right to substitute one team for another, an option taken up a few years later by the Spanish FA when the holders, having failed to qualify naturally , are given a place at the expense of another team.
When this possibility looms up in the English Prem our FA are caught out because they had let everyone buttume, for almost the whole season, that the top 4 would go through. So they take the easiest option of confirming top 4 , probably in the hope that the problem would go away as it was odds on that Pool would slip up in the semi or the final. But Pool did not oblige.
Now our pathetic FA jump on the bandwaggon of taking the moral high ground argument that the Cup winners deserve to be in by right. SO WHY THE HELL DIDN'T THEY MAKE SURE THEY WERE ? They had the option but decided not to use it...probably too busy screwing the female staff to have time to look that far ahead? They really do have more bloody front than Harrods.
So what now? Putting club loyalties to one side ( is that possible?) how would you feel if you were a UEFA member?
Would you be happy to change rules which had covered all possible problems? Would you be happy to suddenly allow the Prem 5 teams instead of 4? Would you be happy to afford the English FA a privilege not offered to Real and the Spanish FA in the past? Would you be happy that the Turkish Champions - who are in the group stage by right - are now relegated to the qualifiers? Would you be happy to make all these rule changes just to get the English FA out of the mire they put themselves in. Buggered if I would!
The argument that Pool must be somehow got back in because the competition would lose prestige without them defending it is nonsense isn't it? Come the autumn, nobody will give a toss if Pool are missing or even if Chelsea, Arsenal or Man U were absent, just as Porto would not have been missed this year. But it seems reasonable that the winners should get in simply as part of the reward for winning. Maybe that is a rule EUFA should make and not leave to ineficient fools like we have at the FA.
If Liverpool are not included let us remember who is responsible. It will not be EUFA.
LC
