h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/4613695.stm

Key points from the article:

Liverpool have been given the chance to defend their Champions League crown after Uefa handed them a place in the first qualifying round for next season.

Liverpool get the smallest share of England's television money if they reach the group stages.

But any other English teams involved - from Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Everton - will still get less money than they would have done were Liverpool not involved.

Liverpool get no "country protection" which means if they progress through two qualifying stages they could face Everton or Manchester United - who enter at the third qualifying round - depending on who is seeded.

If the Reds make it through to the group stages, they could be drawn to face Chelsea, who they beat in the semi-finals last season, or Arsenal, again depending on who is seeded.

In future, the title holders will be entered automatically

Potential Liverpool fixtures in July and August, excluding Premiership:

Champions League
12-13 July: 1st round, 1st leg
19-20 July: 1st round, 2nd leg
26-27 July: 2nd round, 1st leg
2-3 Aug: 2nd round, 2nd leg
9-10 Aug: 3rd round, 1st leg
23-24 Aug: 3rd round, 2nd leg
Pre-season
16 July: v Bayer Leverkusen
22 July: FC Cologne
27 July: Shimizu S-Pulse
30 July: Kashima Antlers
Super Cup
26 Aug: v CSKA Moscow

I knew I forgot to post this somewhere!

I'm still not sure how I feel about this. But then I'm still not sure how I feel about teams who aren't actual champions taking part in a competition called the 'Champions League'.

I suppose at the end of the day that if there is to be a solution that includes Liverpool in next season's competition, then this is the best solution available.

And I'll bet dollars to that a major factor in UEFA's thinking was what the sponsors had to say about having a club such as Liverpool excluded from the competition. I bet if the winners had been say, Galatassary ie from a small TV market, that the outcome would have been very different.

I like the solution merely because it gets the Champions in without kicking Everton out. Would've been riots in the streets of merseyside if we'd been the ones to make way. In actual fact, it's the representatives of, I think, either Andorra or San Marino wo have dropped into the UEFA Cup.

" I'm still not sure how I feel about teams who aren't actual champions taking part"

Man United and Everton are in, aren't they? At least Liverpool actually won something.

I note that UEFA have changed the rules so the previous season's winners will be entered automatically in future.

B

The World Cup holder doesn't get a bye passed qualification for the next competition. So why should the Champions League be any different?

You mean apart from the fact that they're different competitions run by different organisations at different levels of football?

In any case, the World Cup holders, like everyone else, get a chance to qualify for the competition proper, which is just what Liverpool have.

B

But Liverpool have already had their chance of qualifying for the Champions League - they came 5th, they buggered it up. Why should they be allowed into the next season's competition when they aren't, according to the then rules, good enough to qualify?

I could suggest its because of the tradition that applies in these circumstances that football legislative bodies are run by idiots and managed by sycophants.

Of course thats just an opinion.

you just can't please some people... liverpool wants to play the CL but without dropping those crucial antlers and superpulse friendlies... maybe they can just give the youth team some hairbands and send them to japan, i don't think they'll riot in japan just because kewell doesn't play, err...

if UEFA has (re)redone the "rules" to automatically qualify the holders, it's because they don't want to have a decision to make on the subject ever again.

There's a difference between the Champions League and the World Cup in qualifying though. You don't have to qualify for the World Cup at the same time as playing in it, if you see what I mean. You could argue quite successfully that Liverpool have failed to get into the Champions League by league position in the Premiership because of their run in the Champions League itself. This cannot happen in the World Cup - qualifying and the main tournament do not run concurrently.

I suppose that the difference between the 'Champions' League and the World Cup is that the latter is only every four years. Four years is a long time in football, and it's likely that the squad that defends the world cup will probably be very different from the one that won it, and might concievably be much less good. For an annual competition it's going to be much the same team.

But rules are rules. It's up to the national association to decide what happens under such circumstances, and rightly or wrongly the FA chose that the 4th place team would qualify.

But clearly money talks.

Of course money talks - that's how come the 'Champions League' is a thinly disguised European Super League with a knockout stage tacked on the end.

Like GreyDesk says, I've got far more issues with teams who aren't national champions competing in it than with a team who actually won the trophy.

The rules might be the rules, but as far as I can see, as soon as UEFA went beyond the 'national champions and current holders' format and revised the format so the big teams could compete every year then this sort of thing was bound to happen.

Absolutley correct. They'll be changing the name to The Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Trophy before long.

Porto v Monaco must have been pretty disasterous for the sponsors last year

I know. I loved it. I don't think either of them were in the so-called G14 either

porto is a CHARTER member; it started with teams that had won big cup but since they have invited other clubs, including arsenal and OL, to join.

btw, PSV and borussia dortmund are also charter members, so G14 (really G18) is not the exact and up-to-date reflection of the cream of european football...

Oh right, I didn't know that.

So in some ways it's just like Sheffield Wednesday when they were one of the leaders in the break away plans that eventually became the Premier League.