Ronaldo and Messi in the Champions League again? A direction that may enrich football and finally cut the Super League, but weaker countries will pay the price

Not so long ago, a new competition called the Superliga came to the fore, which wanted to change the model that UEFA had established over the years. The latter stepped in and put everything on ice. But the new direction may now be set by Saudi Arabia, which has decided to invest huge amounts of money in football.

Times are changing dynamically and many see the Champions League as an outdated model that is losing its appeal. In particular, those teams that find it difficult to break into it and other top clubs outside of England are trying to change.

The reason for this is quite obvious, the Premier League has taken a big leap forward in recent years and the sums that even bottom of the table clubs can afford to spend on new signings are really high.

Now Saudi Arabia have also stepped in and have several teams that are already very interesting. Their goal seems to be clear, to make a deal with UEFA to get a place in the European cups.

This may give UEFA the nod to expand with another country. If it did so, it could give one or more clubs a place in the qualifiers where they would start picking up the necessary points for the coefficient and then it would all take on a life of its own.

But of course, one could count on the fact that within a few years at least one Saudi PSG would have grown up, which would have made it into the Champions League at the expense of smaller and especially financially weaker countries.

There is another possible direction, however, and that is that UEFA would give space to teams from Saudi Arabia, from MLS or from the Brazilian Serie A, for example. This would create an “all-world” Champions League, which already exists, but would take on a completely different dimension.

In the latter case, however, there is a big problem, both in terms of the different playing seasons and especially in terms of travel. Players criticise every new rule that adds metres per game.

Together with the cups, they already have such a busy schedule that they have very little time to breathe and recover. If you then add several hours of flights to that, they won’t be happy about it at all.

So this is not the direction UEFA is going in for various reasons and we probably won’t see Messi in the Champions League again. With Ronaldo, however, it’s not so out of the question!

But the question is, would it be good for football? Given the experience of the World Cup in Qatar, the answer is probably not. As has already been said, certainly not for economically weaker countries. Or do you have a different opinion?

Source: UEFA, ESPN