Was just looking at the BBC website and the Premier league are proposing a "mini-playoff" for positions 4-7 at end off season to see who goes into champions league. I know the play-offs in the football league add spice to the end of the season and something to play for, but this is mad.

How can a team that finish 7th in their domestic league potentially be the champions of Europe, we need it to go back to the champions and thats it.

having the 4th place team in the 'Champions' league is ridiculous anyway... it's not even a league, never mind for 'champions'

still, it would be entertaining to have an extra match at the end of the season where something's at stake.

I think entry into the Champions League should be League Champions and the winners of the FA Cup and the Carling Cup. That way it's actually 'Champions' of something in the competitions and would make the FA Cup a valued competition again and also make the Carling Cup valued for the first time.

Obviously if a team won more than one of these, 'runners up' would get the place in the CL instead.

I don't think we will ever see a return to the old European Cup format, sad as that may or may not be.
The authorities are forever looking for ways to move forward, as they see it, and that usually runs hand in hand with the unrelenting urge to increase the size of the cash cow.
The premier league were looking at ways to increase the number of games without increasing the number of teams sharing in the cash cow. Remember the proposed 39th game.
This format will partly allow a bit of that.
The premier league and its counterparts in other european countries are more interested in making money than in the game itself, which is why the ordinary football fan is getting more and more disillusioned.
What influence can the ordinary fan have????
The only answer I can think of is that if every sky paying football fan were to take a year out of contributing to sky, maybe something will happen.
This ever growing monster has got to be bust somehow.

Relax Mr Derwent. It's well on the way to busting itself.

Could it happen at the end of this season?
Fabio Capello would be well pissed off if it did.
Possibly three extra high energy, high pressure games for England team/squad members just before the world cup. Madness.