The Future of the Champions League

For Real Madrid supporters, there was plenty to cheer about following the conclusion of the Champions League draw almost four weeks ago in Monaco. It’s true that Los Blancos had been dealt a tricky hand, finding themselves in the Group of Death with Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax, all of whom won their respective domestic leagues last season.

It will be a challenging group for the reigning Spanish champions, as evidenced by the club’s 3-2 victory against Roberto Mancini’s men last week, but if that match was any indication of what’s to come, it may be just one of several meaningful group stage matches that will be played at the Bernabéu for the first time in years.

Since the inception of the current group stage format in 2003, Real Madrid have yet to fail in sealing progression to the knockout round. It has become an annual foregone conclusion that the club will still be playing Champions League football come February. This year, however, is different, and for the first time in its history, advancement to the final 16 looks far from guaranteed.

Group D of the 2012-13 UEFA Champions League represents the quintessential group of a knockout football tournament. It is daunting, it is perilous and, above all, it is unpredictable. It is all that we fans could hope for in group stage matches that collectively have become a boring, humdrum rite of passage for the top clubs in Europe.

With the exception of last year’s Manchester United and a deteriorating Liverpool in 2009, the clubs that were expected to advance to the knockout round from the start of the group stages have done so. Perhaps even more predictable are the club(s) that have no shot of advancing to the knockout stages, such as Nordsjælland in this year’s Group E, Dinamo Zagreb in Group A and BATE Borisov in Group F (their win over Lille notwithstanding), to name a few. It would surely require some divine miracle for Ajax to finish in the top two of the Group of Death.

This yearly group stage triteness as well as the justification of the away goals rule are two of the more prominent issues surrounding the current Champions League format. The away goals rule was introduced by UEFA in 1965 as a way to encourage the visiting club to play more aggressively.

But now, almost a half-century later, the rule has lost relevance, as nearly all of Europe’s top clubs have played at the home stadiums of their most menacing foes. In other words, the intimidation factor of playing on the road has vanished. Bayern Munich and Chelsea proved as much in their respective triumphs at the Bernabéu and Nou Camp in last year’s semifinals.

Travel can also take its toll on players, especially when flying to distant cities like Moscow or Donetsk, but even a flight from London to the Russian capital is only four hours. It would be a genuine shocker if Chelsea, for example, wasn’t able to pull out at least a draw against Spartak should the Blues meet Krasno-Belye in this season’s knockout stage.

However, we are now living in a more globalized world. This fact, compounded with the ever-increasing ubiquity of wealthy investors injecting their millions (and sometimes billions) into clubs around the globe, as well as the ongoing improvements being made in the efficiency of travel are gradually starting to shift the landscape of Champions League football.

Take Anzhi Makhachkala, for example, the Dagestan-based club bankrolled by Russian billionaire Suleyman Kerimov. Since the affluent owner purchased the club back in January of 2011, Anzhi has made several headlines with the signings of Roberto Carlos, Samuel Eto'o, Christopher Samba and Lassana Diarra, among others. The squad—now managed by Dutch legend Guus Hiddink—is already slated to compete in this year’s Europa League and has further aspirations to qualify for next season’s Champions League and to eventually become one of the more formidable sides in Europe.

Anzhi will play its Europa League matches this season at Lokomotiv Stadium in Moscow—deemed a safer environment than the club’s home stadium in volatile Dagestan—but plans are already in the works for a new 40,000-seat stadium on the banks of the Caspian Sea, which will meet all UEFA requirements. Should Anzhi qualify for the Champions League in subsequent years, which seems likely, a flight for a club from London to Makhachkala would be just under five-and-a-half-hours.

Projects similar to that of Anzhi are currently being undertaken in Malaga, St.Petersburg (Zenit) and Shanghai (Shenhua), to name a few, and the prodigious finances of Middle Eastern clubs such as the UAE’s Al Ain and Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal will be difficult to ignore in the coming years.

The same goes for much of the Far East, which has proven to be a football-supporting hotbed. We mustn’t forget the aspirations of MLS clubs either, nor the immense pool of talent in both Africa and Latin America whose current wunderkinds are typically exported to Europe. All regions, countries and cities of the world will play a part in this forthcoming global Champions League.

Not only would this new global Champions League be far more cosmopolitan than the present UEFA Champions League, but it would be more competitive too. Imagine for a moment if Group E minnows Nordsjælland were replaced by Corinthians—the winners of the 2012 Copa Libertadores. Or if Group F’s weakest link, BATE Borisov, were supplanted by 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League winners Monterrey. You’d then be looking at groups consisting of Chelsea, Juventus, Shakhtar Donetsk and Corinthians, and Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lille and Monterrey, respectively.

The addition of clubs like Argentina’s Boca Juniors, Qatar’s Al-Sadd, Japan’s Gamba Osaka and the DRC’s TP Mazembe would give fans the most comprehensive and competitive football tournament to date. The FIFA Club World Cup is the closest thing we have to this kind of tournament today, but the prestige of winning it pales significantly when compared to winning the UEFA Champions League.

The formation of a new global Champions League is as ambitious an endeavor as it is lofty, and obviously, much would need to happen before this kind of tournament could feasibly exist, perhaps most crucially the expediting of travel.

A plane ride from London to Kuala Lumpur, for instance, lasts about 13 hours—far too long a flight for a club to make midweek for a group stage game in September. But remember that the Football Federation of Kazakhstan based in Almaty—almost a seven-and-a-half hour flight from London—still falls under UEFA’s jurisdiction. If a team such as last year’s Kazakhstan Premier League champions Shakhter Karagandy had managed to reached the group stage, each team in their group would have had to make the long haul to the city in Kazakhstan that is further east than Tashkent—the capital of Uzbekistan—whose governing football body falls under the Asian Football Confederation.

So how many years will it be until this new global Champions League begins in earnest? 20? 30? 50 years? It is almost impossible to tell. But if you look carefully at how the world of football has been and is continuing to unfold in different corners of the world, it is clear that the first few infantile steps have already been taken. And it may only be a matter of time before we see Real Madrid squaring off against LA Galaxy live from a foreign neutral site such as Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok in the first-ever Global Champions League Final.

As always, only time will tell.

10 Teams that Aren’t Interested in Signing Peyton Manning that Should Be

Peyton Manning was released by the Indianapolis Colts on Wednesday, and 12 teams have reportedly already contacted the four-time MVP winner’s representatives about playing for their squad next season. Five of those 12 teams have yet to be identified, but sources claim the Arizona Cardinals, Seattle Seahawks, Washington Redskins, Miami Dolphins, Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos and New York Jets have expressed interest in acquiring him. It is no secret that each of these teams is looking to upgrade at the quarterback position, and (a healthy) Manning would surely fit the bill.

Here are 10 more teams that should probably consider inquiring about Manning’s services. Try to keep an open mind with each of these suggestions, and with every squad, ask yourself, if this were my favorite team, would I rather have the incumbent quarterback or (a healthy) Peyton Manning?

11. Buffalo Bills

It’s true that Buffalo handed current starting quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick a six-year, $59 million contract extension midway through last season, but it’s also true that Fitzpatrick won only two of the Bills’ final 10 games after signing that deal. I don’t want to speak for a Harvard man, but my guess is the incumbent Bills quarterback was shocked when he discovered how much money Buffalo’s front office was offering him, and that if asked to take a pay cut in order to bring in a much better quarterback, he probably would.

Let’s face it: The Bills would be much more of a threat with Manning under center gunning deep spirals to Stevie Johnson and company. It’s not that Fitzpatrick is a bad quarterback, it’s just that he’s the perfect backup. Not even Mark Sanchez can say that.

10. Minnesota Vikings

We all saw what rookie Christian Ponder could last season, and he did a respectable job breaking even in touchdown passes and interceptions (13-13—Marc Bulger made the Pro Bowl once with 22-22; it’s not so bad). But clearly, he is not the answer to a woeful Vikings squad that finished a putrid 3-13 last year.

Depth at wide receiver is not one of Minnesota’s strengths—though Percy Harvin is an exceptionally versatile weapon—but with a healthy Adrian Peterson in the backfield and Manning under center, I actually struggle to think of a more dangerous trio than that of Adrian, Percy and Peyton—APP for short, of course. Just imagine if Reggie Wayne signed on…

9. Houston Texans

Houston? But they made the playoffs last year! And their starting quarterback (and backup) got hurt before the postseason even started! And they still won a playoff game! Just imagine how far they would have gone had Matt Schaub been healthy!

I can’t argue with any of this, but that’s all I can do: imagine.

The fact of the matter is that Schaub did in fact get injured and that he has never personally led the Texans to the playoffs during his five years with the team. He’s also 30 years old, and you can’t look me in the eye and tell me that Schaub will ever be as good as Manning (not to mention conference rivals Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger, Philip Rivers, Tim Tebow etc. I’m kidding about Tebow…though he has won playoff game).

With Arian Foster running the ball, a rejuvenated Andre Johnson going deep and Manning running the offense, I think I just found an even more dangerous trio. Now, what if Reggie Wayne signed on?

8. Dallas Cowboys

I haven’t met one Cowboys fan over the last half-decade that hasn’t expressed to me at one point or another how infuriating it is to have Tony Romo quarterback their favorite football team. Romo definitely has the skills to be a successful quarterback; it’s just rare that you’ll see him utilize those skills over the duration of an entire season (his 1-3 record in the postseason can attest for that).

The three-time Pro Bowler will also be turning 32 in April, and he isn’t getting any younger. To be sure, neither is Manning, but I think most Dallas fans would feel a much greater sense of ease with Peyton calling the shots in crunch time than Tony.

Bryant. Austin. Witten. Murray. Manning. Imagine the possibilities.

7. Jacksonville Jaguars

There are few situations in the NFL more dismal than Jacksonville, and there are few players in Jacksonville more dismal than Blaine Gabbert. The former Missouri quarterback had a disappointing rookie year, highlighted by his paltry 64.3 QB rating, and whether or not he can succeed in the league (not to mention whether or not he wants to) has already been called into question.

The Jags have the one of the best running backs in the human bowling ball, Maurice Jones-Drew, and while they’re thin in the wide receiver department, Manning is an alchemist of sorts and can work with pretty much anything you give him to use, especially tight ends. Mercedes Lewis has three inches and 25 pounds on Manning’s former TE target, Dallas Clark and has a fantastic vertical jump.

If the Blaine Gabbert experiment is going to have any hope, having a guy like Manning around to mentor the mercurial 22-year-old couldn’t hurt.

6. Atlanta Falcons

What about Matty Ice? Indeed, what about Matty Ice? The Falcons starting quarterback is undoubtedly talented and has proven that by leading Atlanta to the postseason in three of his first four seasons in the league. Impressive, but Matt Ryan still has not won a single playoff game.

His greatest chance to take the Falcons to the Super Bowl came at the backend of a tremendous 14-2 season, when they hosted a divisional round game in 2011. But the Aaron Rodgers we know and love showed up and pummeled the overachieving hosts, 48-21, and went on to lead the Packers to their first Super Bowl in 15 years.

Ryan’s most recent postseason performance—a 24-2 loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants—wasn’t much better.

Don’t you think another quarterback might be able to better maximize the overabundance of talent that is Roddy White, Julio Jones, Tony Gonzalez and Michael Turner? Manning could be that guy.

5. Oakland Raiders

Not that Manning would ever want to don the silver and black, but if one thing’s for sure, it’s that Carson Palmer is not the answer in Oaktown. The former Bengals quarterback was handed a golden opportunity to seal a Raiders playoff berth at home on the final game of the season after Tim Tebow’s Broncos fell to the Chiefs,  but didn’t answer the bell, as San Diego stormed the bay area and spoiled Oakland’s postseason dreams.

There is talent abound at wide receiver with Darrius Heyward-Bey and Denarius Moore leading the way, two targets Manning could have a real field day with if he signed for the late Al Davis’ ever-intriguing side.

4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Did I say Jacksonville was the most dismal situation in the NFL? Sorry, I meant Tampa Bay. The promise of plentiful sunshine would be the main (and only) reason for Manning’s relocating to the west coast of Florida, and I’m not sure even he could turn around this ship that has already sunk.

3. San Diego Chargers

I know, I know: Philip Rivers is a solid quarterback. But he hasn’t really won anything since becoming the team’s starter back in 2006. He’s been to one AFC Championship, and every year, it seems like he is the central reason behind the Chargers underachieving.

Also, doesn’t the Manning family owe something to San Diego? The least they could do is send their eldest son to play for the team that almost drafted him back in 1998.

One more thing: Rivers, for whatever reason, continues to be an unpopular figure throughout the league, and more significantly, has never played in the Super Bowl. Manning is as likeable as they come and has played in two Super Bowls, winning it all in his first one.

2. Chicago Bears

Speaking of likeable characters, how about Jay Cutler? It was a real shame the former Vanderbilt quarterback got injured (again) last year just as the Bears were starting to make a playoff push. Then again, it was unfortunate when he got hurt during the NFC title game two years ago and refused to—sorry, couldn’t—return. The Packers knocked off backup Caleb Hanie in Chicago to advance to the Super Bowl where they defeated the Steelers.

Bears fans deserve a reliable quarterback they can count on, and who better than Peyton Manning to take them to the Promised Land? Four matchups featuring a combination of Manning and Aaron Rodgers/Matthew Stafford would make for prime-time television every time.

1. Indianapolis Colts

Too soon?

Champions League Round of 16 - Real Held in Moscow, Napoli's Blue Crush

Here are some of my thoughts on tonight’s two Champions League matches…

Real Madrid @ CSKA Moscow (first leg: 1-1)

Although Real conceded a goal to 25-year-old Sweden international Pontus Wernbloom (who has arguably one of the better names in football) at the death, this has to be viewed as a positive result for the nine-time European champions.

Jose Mourinho’s men took the lead in the 28^th minute after CSKA’s horrible attempt at clearing the ball, which allowed Cristiano Ronaldo—who else?—to find the back of the net with a well struck shot off his weak foot that beat goalkeeper Sergei Chepchugov, who was forced to stand on his head more than once in Moscow tonight.

Mourinho supporters will remember his Inter squad that came to the Luzhniki Stadium two years ago up 1-0 on aggregate after the first leg of the 2009-10 Champions League quarter-finals, and doubling their lead before advancing to the semi-finals—en route to their historic treble-winning season—thanks to a lucky Wesley Sneijder strike. Inter did not concede a goal over their tie with CSKA that year, and while Real already have thanks to the Swede’s late-game heroics (something CSKA has shown a real affinity for in Europe’s premier tournament in recent years, actually), don’t expect them to do so in the return leg three weeks from tomorrow. However slim the Russian side’s chances are of pulling off a miracle at the Bernabeu, though, CSKA boss Leonid Slutsky should be extremely proud of his club’s hard-fought effort tonight against superior opposition in front of just over 70,000 spectators.

Real Madrid currently sit a whopping ten points ahead of Barcelona atop La Liga, and will surely move on to this year’s Champions League quarter-finals, but you start to get the feeling that a double-winning season will have an air of incompleteness about it unless the club proves that it can defeat Barcelona…like that’s ever going to happen.

 Chelsea @ Napoli (first leg: 3-1 Napoli)

This one, for whatever reason, reminded me a lot of this year’s Super Bowl. I am not a New England fan—and never will be—but I know that the vast majority of my friends who are told me they weren’t the least bit surprised when their precious Patriots fell to the Giants (again).

I am, however, a Chelsea fan, and sadly, I share the same sentiments of my New England adversaries tonight.

This result was to be expected, was it not? The horrid run Chelsea has been on. Their highly questionable backline. The fact that Napoli is just a hungrier club at the moment. All three of these factors—and surely dozens more—conspired and brought down the mighty Blues in southern Italy this evening, and once again put a giant dent in their Champions League title hopes. But it was all too predictable.

The only thing that really surprised me was the fact that over 82% of people who had submitted a pick for the match on ESPN.com’s Streak for the Cash had elected a Chelsea win over a Napoli win…or draw (I chose the latter and can now boast a proud two-game winning streak with eight days left in the month).

Clearly these people hadn’t been paying attention to how Chelsea actually plies their trade these days.

The team is completely different than in years past, and it is becoming more and more evident with each passing fixture just how clueless, helpless, and unsuited manager Andre Villas-Boas is for his current post.

The backline acted almost as a parody of itself with David Luiz leading the way committing his usual comedy of errors, all of which contributed to the three Napoli goals. Chelsea created some chances, but they looked like a dispirited bunch for much of the night, quite the contrary to what we’ve all grown so accustomed to seeing over the past half decade. The most egregious act of the evening, however, was found on AVB’s lineup card.

Why Michael Essien, Ashley Cole, and Frank Lampard—three Chelsea legends who have enjoyed unparalleled success in Europe compared to most of their teammates—were all left out of the starting XI for what was obviously the club’s most important match of the season yet is both baffling and downright inexcusable.

It’s almost as if AVB is trying to get sacked. He is on thin ice as it is—that is no secret—and there’s no telling when that ice might finally crack, but if the Portuguese is still around in three weeks for the return leg at Stamford Bridge and still wants to keep his job, he will put his grand, revolutionary plans aside for 90 minutes and give the club a fresh injection of veteran experience (an oxy-moron if I ever heard one) and leadership and hope for the best. That means starting Essien and Lampard, Drogba and Torres (Yes. Together.), and maybe even Salomon Kalou. Chelsea is not the formidable European side they’ve been in years past, but they’ve scored more than a couple goals at home before. Maybe a desperate, last-second return to the club’s golden era can salvage a Champions League campaign that may have already reached yet another abrupt and premature ending. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I almost miss Nicolas Anelka…almost.

A quick word on Napoli: their front three of Ezequiel Lavezzi, Marek Hamsik, and the ferociously indomitable Edinson Cavani is as good as they come. The trio talked the talk before Tuesday night’s showdown, and then more than walked the walk tonight in the chances they both created and converted. An Argentine, a Slovak, and a Uruguayan, it turns out, form a perfect triangle.

AVB - We Hardly Knew Thee?

It was a simple question directed to Andre Villas-Boas at a recent press conference in the week leading up to Chelsea’s FA Cup Fifth Round tie against Birmingham on Sunday:

“How strong is the desire within the squad now to win either the FA Cup or the Champions League given that you aren’t going to win the [Premiership]?”

Football managers are bombarded by these types of questions on an almost daily basis during any one season, so much so in fact that it becomes easier and easier to predict the coach’s response as the year rolls on. If you had asked me to forecast Villas-Boas’ response to this particular query, I probably would have guessed that he’d say something like this:

“The team is still training hard. It is February. The Premiership is not over until May. We will continue to work hard and try to win all that we can before the end of the season.”

An answer like this is as obvious (and as trite) as they come when faced with this type of questioning. This member of the press—he’s certainly not alone though—had clearly written off Chelsea’s chances of winning the Premier League, and was inquiring to determine the level of the club’s overall ambition in said tournaments, stirring the proverbial pot, which is the job of journalists and commentators alike.

The manager’s job, of course, is to then deflect and ward off these oncoming questions and assertions by retorting in a way that will not only refute these claims, but that will also re-instill a sense of hope and optimism into not only the club, but its supporters as well. It is, once again, the obvious thing for a manager to do.

But Villas-Boas is unlike most managers, and not solely because of his precocious pedigree. No, AVB’s ever-increasing frustration at Stamford Bridge has been well-documented in the eight months since he joined Chelsea back in June, and following a particularly dismal run of form that has seen the Blues go winless since January 28, there has been nary a smile to be seen on the manager’s face for weeks.

So when Villas-Boas was asked the aforementioned question, instead of replying rather banally but positively, he glared at the inquirer and might as well have brandished a small white flag in lieu of his crestfallen, but candid, response:

“Not as strong as before,” he conceded.

AVB could have said Chelsea isn’t finished yet. He could have said we’re still alive in two hugely important tournaments that we think we can win. He could have said we still have loads more quality than most teams in these tournaments.

He could have said all these things and more in a last-ditch effort to reinvigorate the squad and its fan base and, in so doing, give everyone in West London a little boost of hope.

But he didn’t. It wouldn’t have been genuine, and it wouldn’t have been the truth.

The truth is that Chelsea are in shambles. The last time they won a match came three weeks ago in an unconvincing 1-0 victory over QPR in the FA Cup Fourth Round, and the last time they won a Premiership match was another pallid 1-0 triumph against Sunderland over a month ago on January 14. Since, they have lost just once (a 2-0 drubbing away to Everton) but were unable to score against Norwich, blew a 3-0 second half lead at home to Manchester United, and were nearly knocked out of the FA Cup at home to Birmingham on Sunday. It doesn’t help that the club will travel to Napoli next to take on the club nobody wants to play in tomorrow’s first leg of the Champions League’s round of 16.

There are rumors swirling about that the Chelsea players have lost faith in Villas-Boas and AVB’s aforesaid comments do little to dispel those rumblings. And it is no secret that if this unacceptable run of form continues, Villas-Boas could soon be packing his bags before his revolutionary project is barely underway.

There have been a few players who have come to AVB’s defense such as striker Didier Drogba. But with the Ivory Coast international’s contract expiring at season’s end and there being little speculation of its renewal, how difficult must it have been for Drogba to publicly back his manager? Especially when you consider the fact that he had been away at the Africa Cup of Nations for the last month, which has proven to be—perhaps not coincidentally—the most tumultuous chapter of Chelsea’s season thus far.

Perhaps Chelsea hired the wrong man for the job when they signed Villas-Boas as manager.

Perhaps the 34-year-old needed more time to develop in an authoritative roll, despite winning the treble with Porto last season.

Perhaps Chelsea saw a little too much of Mourinho in AVB, though results—not to mention overall demeanor—in each Portuguese’ first season at Stamford Bridge have clearly shown they are not as similar as some might have originally believed them to be.

Or perhaps the real problem here is the culture of impatience that has been created at the club by owner Roman Abramovich. Not including Mourinho, who left Chelsea by mutual consent in the fall of 2007, the Blues have had five different managers since the Special One’s departure, and only one of them (Carlo Ancelotti) has lasted longer than one season in charge. It has reached a point where being fired by Abramovich has become almost a rite of passage for Chelsea managers and Villas-Boas surely realizes his days in West London could very well be numbered if results don’t improve. The players undoubtedly realize this, too, and it is they, perhaps more so now than the manager, who have the power to control those results.

Villas-Boas can breathe a momentary sigh of relief now that Guus Hiddink—an Abramovich favorite—has inked a new contract to manage Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala. But the manager’s career at Chelsea will undeniably be on the line against Napoli.

Should the Blues advance, AVB may yet retain his job. It will, of course, depend on how much farther he can push his ageing side in football’s prize tournament. Should the Blues fail to progress (and following Arsenal’s recent performance in Italy, it doesn’t look promising), however, AVB will surely be shown the exit and make way for the next dead manager walking at Stamford Bridge.

So it will all come down to tomorrow (and then in the return leg on March 14—if AVB survives that long, and if the thrashing in the first leg isn’t too severe, that is) against Napoli for Andre Villas-Boas. Will his discontented squad rise out of the ashes and put on a clinical, vintage Chelsea performance in Tuesday’s first leg that will give the club a fighting chance to survive? Or will they continue to play uninspired football and keep looking over their shoulders for a new boss in whom they can trust and believe to suddenly appear?

It will be up to AVB. But, it will also be up to his team.