Personally, I feel all the european competitions were devalued when they allowed non champions into the European cup. It immediately relegated the Uefa cup to a 'mid table' competition where it had previously been for runners up and made nonsense of the concept of the European cup, that being the winners of the domestic leagues battling to see who was the best in Europe. To then call it the contrived 'champions league' (which technically should have an apostrophe somewhere in there) further devalues a once great competition. Champions League? Where are the champions? Liverpool were far from it when they won. Get back to what it chould be and stop pandering to the financial side of it. I agree with the direction Platini is going. The likelihood of his succeeding is sadly small.