Champions League update: The rich get richer!!!

The Champions League playoff stage got underway this week with Pep Guardiola's Man City smashing apart some poor excuse for a Romanian outfit, substitute Fabian Johnson and Borussia Monchengladbach putting home three away goals in Switzerland and Roma getting a valuable score draw despite playing with 10 men at Porto.

In a couple of years, the IMOTGP blog won't be reporting on these results. And not because we won't be in existence, either, since ours is a long-term project, don't you know. Rather teams like Man City, Gladbach and Roma won't ever have to waste their time in a 'playoff round' ever again.

That's right, the Champions League is set to change in 2018-19 with four guaranteed group-stage spots for teams from the top four leagues. That means fourth-placed finishers in Spain, England, Germany and Italy will advance right to the group stage and not have to play in. It means the field will have half of it consist of the top four leagues and probably more considering that Europa League champions are also invited to the party.

Long-time followers of the blog recall that we reported on this back in May. That was when United States football power broker Charlie Stillitano made his controversial remarks about Manchester United having more value than Leicester City and that change was coming to the Champions League.  Many people dismissed the 'Yank' as a 'wanker.' Well it turns out that he was right. And remember, this wasn't his idea - the biggest clubs in the world are after one thing: and you see it pictured above below the headline. 

Many people are complaining about the power of the Real Madrids, Man Uniteds, Barcas and Bayerns. But as we said before, how many of you watched Wolfsburg-Gent or Zenit-Benfica in last season's round of 16?  I don't see many hands raised yet you lot all tuned in for Barca-Arsenal and Bayern-Juve in that same round.  Coincidence? We think not.

It's a changing world and we all need to adapt. Your faithful blogger recently was replaced by a robot at his job so the IMOTGP knows all about this. Yes clubs like Steaua Bucharest, Red Star Belgrade and Ajax are all former European champions but no top footballer worth his boots would play for those clubs now. There's no money there. 

It should be noted that this change goes into effect for the Champions League seasons of 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21. After that? We can only assume the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A will want even more teams in Europe's premier football club competition and exclude all other clubs. Why not?

So let's look at the bright side. Maybe if the big-four leagues get in, our beloved Hertha BSC can be a debutant to the brand-new European Super League in 2021-22. That's the major positive we see.