http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2914/...cards-bartomeu
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35635477
Now Barcelona President Bartomeu is calling for UEFA to allow big/ elite clubs who are flopping or fail to qualify eg Chelsea, Man U and possibly Man City to automatically gain entry to Champions League regardless of not being in top 3/4 (Play off). This is worrying as it's Barcelona pushing for this, this credible as they are practically guaranteed a CL place till Neymar retires so this won't directly benefit them.
There is no direct self interest for Barce other than wanting to generate money from elite club fixtures ie Nou Camp games against Chelsea will bring in more revenue than games against Maribor, Leicester or Vitoria Plzen. But why should a big club ie with history be considered? What about the future, creating new Euro histories with Gent, West Ham, Leicester, Atalanta, Ingolstadt, Den Haag, Spurs or Rennes?
No club has a god given right to be in CL. Not even Barce. It's bad enough that the Serbian champions Partizan , Red Star Belgrade* and Swedish champions like Malmo have to play a qualifier whilst EPL #2 #3 , place teams qualify automatically. And as crazy as it seems, a side like
Spurs could on paper beat Barcelona at Camp Nou as crazy as that sounds it's not impossible, shocks, upsets, giant killings do happen even with Messi, Neymar, Suarez fully fit. Nothing is inevitable. Arsenal might spring ashock at Nou Camp. Let's not talk about Arsenal's chances as if there is more chance of winning the £180m Euro millions jackpot. Aston Villa staying up is less likely.
Spurs could win CL next season, not the most likely outcome, but by no means totally impossible as experts and pundits keep saying. Impossible is Messing growing wings and flying. Impossible is not Messi and his Barcelona chums losing in 2 CL semis to a Gent or a Caen. No wildcards to elite teams, if there must go down wild card route then would rather it was Stoke, Southampton or West Ham. Not Chelsea or Man U.
The last thing European football needs is to be like Argentinian League, where once when the biggest /elite team ended up bottom of League they didn't get relegated they ARGENTINAN FA simply joined up the top two Leagues!! FIFA and the football world needs to cope better with shocks and unlikely outcomes and stop treating successful non-elite teams as lepers and as a problem to eradicate.
* Guess who won the CL in 1990/1?!