[Soccer] Cup winners may earn Champions League spot

[Rappy Veteran]

Uefa have said they will consider awarding a Champions League place to winners of the FA Cup which could take effect from 2009.

The proposal, which was mooted at Uefa's European club forum, could see the winner of each country's main cup tournament entered into an end-of-season play-off system or gain instant qualification into the Champions League draw.

William Gaillard, Uefa's communications director and adviser to president Michel Platini, said: "This is one of many, many ideas that are being discussed.

"Many people like cup competitions and feel that the end of the European Cup Winners Cup has been a raw deal for the cup winners.

"It would need the agreement of the clubs, leagues and national associations so if they support it, it will go forward or it might just disappear."

Uefa president Platini has already spoken of his desire to limit the number of Champions League places awarded to clubs in Germany, England, Spain and Italy from four to three. As a compromise, places could be reduced to three plus the cup winner.

The move would improve the standing of cup competitions and Gaillard said: "It would restore some of the value."

The idea will go before representatives from clubs, leagues and national associations in June before a final decision is taken by Uefa's executive committee in September.

Cool idea :D

[Paul]

I'm not sure about this, the CL is ment to be for Europe's elite, this could see some lesser teams get in as they do win the FA cup and it's counterparts sometimes....I think the UEFA cup place is better for this.

[Shibby]

HMMM no so sure what to make of this.

Currently if someone in the champs league wins the FA cup it leaves a place open in the table for a normal UFEA cup place.

[Harlem39s Finest]

bad idea

[Mike]

i find it stupid to allow more teams from the countries that do less well, then we'll start seeing a large difference in teams in the group stage thus making the group stages boring

[L3thal Veteran]

Its not such a bad idea. If they set up a tournament of cup winners, the winner should be awarded a spot in the Champions League while the loser gets a spot in the UEFA Cup or if not, the 3rd place winner could be awarded the UEFA Cup spot. Seems fair to me if it were done this way.

[Martyn]

I don't think it is a good idea to be honest, if you remember the other year when Milwall got to the final of the FA Cup, they where awarded a UEFA Cup place. Well they did not exactly give a good of themselves then.

[L3thal Veteran]

That's what I mean. To eradicate situtations like those, we would have a knock-out tournament and 1 or 2 of the final teams get awarded a spot somewhere out of the 20 or so competing. Therefore, if a team like Southampton wins the FA Cup and a team like <insert name of any European crap team> wins their country's cup, there's a very high chance Southampton will kick them to oblivion, thus making them a stronger contender if entered into the UEFA or Champions League.