Super Club Dominance.

[the dza]

I posted in another thread that the big 3 of Bayern, Madrid and Barca have a bit of a stranglehold on the Champions League at the moment, with one of those sides being in the last 9 finals and winning 7 of them.

Just out of curiosity, I decided to look back through the history of the European Cup/Champions League and see if this kind of dominance over the final is the norm. Obviously, there are great teams who won many in a row in the early days (Madrid winning the first 5 for example) but I wondered how many different teams simply made the final. We have to take into account that English teams weren't in the first few tournaments and were also banned for 5 years in the 80s, and then there was the modern day expansion to include top 2/3/4 teams from major nations, so more teams taking part in the tournament.

I'll do it on blocks of ten:

The first ten finals (1955-1965) were contested by 8 different teams, 4 different winners (Real Madrid, Stade De Reims, Fiorentina, Milan, Eintracht Frankfurt, Benfica, Barcelona, Inter Milan).

The next ten finals (1965-1975) were contested by 14 different teams, 7 different winners (Real Madrid, Partizan, Celtic, Inter Milan, Man Utd, Benfica, Milan, Ajax, Feyenoord, Panathinaikos, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Athletico Madrid, Leeds Utd).

The next ten finals (1975-1985) were contested by 12 different teams, 6 different winners (Bayern Munich, Saint Etienne, Liverpool, Borussia Monchengladbach, Club Brugge, Nottingham Forest, Malmo, Hamburg, Real Madrid, Aston Villa, Juventus, Roma).

The next ten finals (1985-1995) were contested by 11 different teams, 8 different winners (Steaua Bucharest, Barcelona, Porto, Bayern Munich, PSV Eindhoven, Benfica, Milan, Red Star Belgrade, Marseille, Sampdoria, Ajax).

The next ten finals (1995-2005) were contested by 12 different teams, 8 different winners (Juventus, Ajax, Dortmund, Real Madrid, Man Utd, Bayern Munich, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Milan, Porto, Monaco, Liverpool).

The next twelve finals, taking us to the present day (2005-2017) were contested by 11 different teams, 7 different winners (Barcelona, Arsenal, Milan, Liverpool, Man Utd, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Juventus).

The numbers seem quite consistent, but expanding the tournament hasn't made any difference. It used to be just Champions, now you get 2/3/4 clubs from the major nations all taking part -- more teams involved but no more variation as to who contests the final than there used to be.

The super clubs seem to have a real strangle hold on the tournament now, despite so many different teams taking part. Possibly the old knockout format led to relatively more variation amongst less teams taking part in the overall tournament. Or maybe it just feels that way?

The main takeaway from this is that it's my day off and I have too much time on my hands.

 

[parklane1]

The compitition has been spoilt since they let runners up in their Lges enter and is now a bore fest. Its all about money and was set up because a lot of the bigger clubs were making noises about leaving their countries Lges and setting up a super Lge. Greed, greed greed, and now i hear rumours that certain clubs are again discussing just this.

 

[Jordinho]

All the usual suspects now qualify every season instead every once in a while when they won the league. Say what you like about backwater leagues in Eastern Europe, but having the champions from Poland, Romania, Bulgaria etc. make it into the latter stages (beyond qualifying rounds these days) made for a better spectacle.

 

[the dza]

All the usual suspects now qualify every season instead every once in a while when they won the league. Say what you like about backwater leagues in Eastern Europe, but having the champions from Poland, Romania, Bulgaria etc. make it into the latter stages (beyond qualifying rounds these days) made for a better spectacle.

I agree.

In the pre-champions league era, you had finalists from Holland (3 different clubs), Yugoslavia, Romania, Sweden, Belgium, Scotland and Greece.

The last 12 years, all the finalists have been from Spain, England, Italy and Germany, the four major leagues with the most cash (I guess PSG will change that because of their billions).

 

[Mr_B]

yup, 20 years ago, everyone would have been taking about Monaco's young, exciting team making a run for it this year, but in today's age of big teams buying all the talent, monaco have lost half their team already, sad.

 

[Spur of the moment]

yup, 20 years ago, everyone would have been taking about Monaco's young, exciting team making a run for it this year, but in today's age of big teams buying all the talent, monaco have lost half their team already, sad.

Wonder how Ajax fans feel about us?

 

[Jurgen the German]

Good post and thread.

I must say I'm starting to get a bit bored with the Champions League. Goes without saying I would be over the friggin moon if we somehow managed to win it in my lifetime but I didn't get the same buzz for qualifying for it like I did when we did it for the first time under 'Arry'. It's the same teams as you say that are dominating. Real Madrid look like they will win it again this season. I cancelled BT sport at the end of last season, don't really care who wins it as long as it's not another English club. Getting a bit boring now.