The worth of champions

For readers in the US, I shall be concentrating on football for this entry. That is football, not soccer.

I'll skip the big news of the man who knows nothing about football owning one of the largest football teams in the world (Malcolm Glazer owning 75% of Manchester United) and the beginning of his scheme to ruin the club.

Instead I want to look at the worth of winning competitions.

In the days of old being Champions of Europe or Champions of the World meant something. It meant pride, prestige and honour of knowing you were the best. It meant fame and glory. It meant working harder to defend your title next time out knowing that everyone was now vying for your scalp.

It also meant automatic qualification.

We are now in the position of having to see one team qualify for a competition and another not knowing what will happen.

We have Brazil the Champions of the World*. In 2002 they won the World Cup in Korea and Japan. They beat Germany 2-0 in the final and won for the fifth time, making them the most successful team by far in this competition. Whereas in the past they'd be sitting thinking about defending their title next year, they are sitting thinking about how they could possibly be knocked out of the qualifiers and not make it to Germany where the 2006 finals are being held.

We have Liverpool, in the final of the Champions' League, the most prestigious club competition in Europe. Now in the Premiership they finished fifth. The top four teams in the Premiership qualify for the Champions' League. They are in the position that even if they win the competition they may not be allowed to compete next year and defend their title. They did not finish fourth and UEFA initially said that the English FA would need to decide between Liverpool and the fourth place team, Everton.

Now how the heck could this be allowed?
Team: "Hello, we are the championship winning team."
Big Boss: "Hey congratulations, you won the competition. Thank you for playing and earning us mega-bucks in sponsorship, television and advertising revenues now please fuck off and don't let the door hit you on the way out."

I can understand wanting to put in rules and methods for qualification to make it fairer for all areas. However, allowances need to be made for the Champions regardless of what else has gone on. The rules should cover as many eventualities as possible or have a loose set of principles which when followed can resolve many/any situation. The Champions should have a special place, an exemption as another reward for the toil and effort put in to achieve their position.

*mainly for anyone in the US. Unlike the World Series where a team from the US declares they are World winners, the World Cup actually has teams from all over the globe competing against each other.