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In my opinion having less wealthy, weaker teams in the competition will just lead to to a weaker competition. The majority of Eastern European teams do not have the financial infastructure or global fan base to compete at the top level, the 4th, 5th placed teams in the strongest leagues do.

In my opinion, even if the Champions of Serbia, Croatia, Moldova etc were allowed straight through to the group stage, it wouldn't stop the exodus of their top players to the top European sides and leagues. Footballers are like WAGS, they go where the money is.

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Sure. but wouldn't the chance to play in the Chumps League more often 'level the playing field' over a few seasons in this regard? The clubs would improve with European experience and their best players would be more likely to stay a little longer.

I think it's worth mentioning in a similar context the recent agreement among Estonia, Latvia and a couple of other Baltic nations to form a sort of mini 'Baltic Champions League' as a way to allow the biggest clubs from their countries to get more European experience, and thus hopefully do better if or when they reach the latter qualifying rounds of the real thing. Europe's got a hell of a lot of nations, so more regional competitions like this, if they're sensibly run and - why not? - UEFA endorsed, could perhaps be the way forward initially.


Sam

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More fútbol argentino than you can shake a mullet at - Hasta El Gol Siempre

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