2025-26 UEFA Champions League

What they’ve spent in the last 5 seasons on transfer fees is about the same as Liverpool in the summer just gone.

If you’re gonna have a go at being average and money spent maybe look at City, PSG, Chelsea…

Yeah I know and I agree, hence the selective wording of transfer fees 😁 but that’s smart business from Madrid. PSG & City are still paying massive wages too and I’m sure the signing on fees they’re handing out aren’t low. “All the money spent” comment felt misguided when you compare Madrid to others.

Its not every club that can pay one player €150m (not paid out at once) as a signing on fee, on top of €15m a year.

Not sure if there is another thread discussing it but here seems as good a place as any to comment on the coverage last night. I was flicking between RTE 2 (showing the Liverpool game) and Virgin Media 2 (showing the Chelsea game) and the difference in coverage was massive. RTE popped up a latest scores briefly every once in a while (you would do well to catch them all!) and made small mentions of other games during the game itself. Then afterwards the boys waffled on about the Liverpool game for a good 30 minutes after (it's not like it was a close game or dramatic in any way!), with hardly a mention of the drama happening elsewhere. Virgin Media on the other hand showed every goal of every game during the Chelsea match itself in split screen mode, so you were involved in the latest picture at all times. Then at the end of the Chelsea game they switched straight over to the Benfica game to catch the crazy ending of that game (which was fantastic viewing btw, including the fact that Benfica themselves were timewasting thinking they had done enough until the free in the last minute when they suddenly realized they needed to win by two so threw the keeper up!), all the time aware of the overall standings and who had what at stake. It was like RTE were uninterested in the last day drama or overall standings and could only focus on the one game. Hats off to Virgin Media, vastly superior coverage on the night.

That draw I assume is just for play off round. None of the English clubs (bar Newcastle) will know who they get until end Feb.

RTE only have the rights to one game each Wednesday, and can show highlights of the others some time after the final whistle (30 mins I think)

Virgin Media have rights to all games (other than RTE and Prime picks).

So it's not so much that RTE weren't interested, but that they were limited in what they could actually show. Possibly afterwards they could have discussed the other games rather than L'Pool, but again if you can't show goals yet then the discussion would be somewhat empty.

But definitely a win for VM last night, it was superb.

Mad stat I saw this morning. Spurs qualified in fourth place while only managing one win against teams who qualified to the next round of the CL.

Just watched Mourinho's post match interview -

1. He didn't know his team needed another goal for a while at the end, didn't know what was going on, He was upset he was not told earlier.
2. The keeper Trubin nearly scored in a game in the Portuguese league against Porto a few weeks ago.

RTE can turn into "Little Englander's" / British centric when it comes to CL coverage. They always do it. It is obviously what gets the views Liverpool, Man United, Celtic etc etc. The fact RTE televised that match last night a dead rubber non event game said it all. Just because it was Liverpool.

As a person who is not interested in any of those teams and doesn't say "We" for a British team it always used to infuriate me. When RTE used to show a team like Liverpool against a very weak side. Or Celtic in a game they are going to get hammered in. Just because they are Celtic. Instead of showing interesting matches. When Shaktar were full of Brazilians playing great football etc.

I am annoyed about it. In fact I think I will send an email to the RTE sports department they need to be told to cop themselves on a bit. But I remember I sent an email complaining of the knowledge of the pundits of teams outside the EPL or the big clubs basically it was Giles et al laughing and saying they knew nothing about the two sides in question.

The reply I got back was a snotty one. The person from the RTE department Richard Craven said are ITV and BBC any better?

On this ocassion I think the RTE sports department hasn't got a leg to stand on an Irish competitor really showed them up. It will be interesting what sort of reply I get if I complain this time.

As nice as that would be for Spurs, thats not how the draw works

It wasn't a dead rubber Liverpool could have been outside the top 8 or Qarabag could have been eliminated completely, they needed a draw to guarantee progress (though in the end other results saved them)

It's kinda been explained a few times.

One (RTE) has a first-pick-only package on a single night (Wednesday), with delayed highlights rights.

The other (VM) has rights to every game except the RTE first pick (Wednesday) and the Amazon first pick (Tuesday). These 'every game rights' seem to allow them to show goals as they go in.

It's unrealistic to expect both VM and RTE to have the same rights - because UEFA explicitly give packages with different sets of rights.

The VM package is far better during the groups, especially the last night of group games.
The RTE package is superior at the latter end of the competition. They have the final exclusively in Ireland, and they will show the 2 Wednesday semi-final ties, with Amazon showing the 2 Tuesday ties. Virgin Media will have nothing live after the quarter-finals.

Oh no! You are right! That draw is in February. I thought we'd have all the permutations by tomorrow.

Maybe they need to heat a few balls after the "round of 24"!

I think it's fairer in that old system though because the table doesn't lie and every team has played every other team in the group home and away. So if you get knocked out it's by a team you've played twice so tough beans

Now you've got way less teams eliminated after more games having played only a handful of the teams qualifying ahead of you

It's a shameless cash grab and they'll use Benfica last night as some proof that it's working

The old system wasnt perfect and it was tinkered with a few times unsuccessfully but since the expansion in the 1990's it's probably necessary to have some sort of league phase, but this idea of one massive table including more games just doesn't work