[nffc]

Originally Posted by gazzae

But the Champions are allowed to defend it. The problem here was the number of teams. UEFA rules stated that no country can have more then 4 teams.

When this happened before in Spain - Real Madrid finished 5th but won the European Cup - the spanish FA excluded the fouth placed team, I think it was Real Zaragotha, and included Madrid in their four representatives. UEFA leave it to the countries FA to decided what teams are nominated - the Spanish FA made a decision, the English FA didn't have the balls to make one.

Yes but what's happened here, is the winners have fallen outside the normal qualifying places and because they've taken away the automatic place then they can't defend it. ie, they're assuming the holders qualify by virtue of their league position.

When they only let league champions in then the holders got in anyway, all I'm saying is if this stupid rule about holders not being allowed in had been around then, countless champions who didn't win their league the season they won the EC wouldn't be allowed to defend it.

The problem is the silly rule about the coefficients. Normally it works well but when you have a situation like this, you can't NOT send a side who have qualified by virtue of a position in the league, and you can't NOT enter the holders. If the rule had been "one team per FA" back then, do you send the holders or the Champions?

The matter is there should be a special entry place for the holders and that should be independent of their league position- ie, the only logical way is for five English sides to enter, the normal 4 (Chelsea, Arsenal, **** and Everton) who finished there by rights of their league position, and the holders, who won the competition but finished outside the top 4. They all deserve to be there, as they've satisfied the requirements to be there.

I also think Man City should take the extra European place too.