As if the big clubs didn’t have it easy enough…
Consider if/when Manchester United finish outside the top four of the Premier League this season and miss out on the Champions League.
The huge blow to the club’s finances and prestige might, temporarily at least, somewhat level the playing field for some of England’s slightly less powerful clubs.
Now imagine that, rather than sitting out on Europe’s elite competition and struggling to sign top transfer targets wanting Champions League football, United are instead parachuted into European competition via a ‘wild card’.
United fans might like the sound of that, but it’s really a quite terrible idea, yet it’s one that has gained the backing of Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu.
Speaking to the BBC, Bartomeu used the example of tennis, where Grand Slams such as Wimbledon have the ability to offer wild cards to players who would otherwise have qualified but fell down the rankings due to age or injury (Goran Ivanisevic famously won the 2001 Wimbledon title on a wild card).
Bartomeu said: “Right now we are lucky because the important leagues, the Premier League, the Spanish league to the Italian league, we have more and more clubs.
“It’s interesting for the leagues to see who will play in the Champions League, but I am sure that sometimes, in the interest of football, that why not give wild cards like in tennis?
“Sometimes the top players are not qualified, they get wild cards, so why not, in the interest of football, sometimes a wild card could be given to a club?
“Sometimes because you have a bad season, it’s a very big punishment to a club to not play the Champions League that year.”
Did we say what a terrible idea this is?
