The play-in round is over without any major surprises and tomorrow the groups for the 2009-10 Champions League will be determined. The Goal.com link above has a pretty good break down of the way it works. The wizards over at UEFA have the 32 teams broken down into 4 "pots", each group being comprised of a team from each pot with no two teams from the same country sharing a group.
The reason this system is stupid and dumb and should make anyone associated with it blush, apologize, and resign is the insane methodology used in assigning rank to the teams. Just one example: AC Milan did not qualify for last year's CL and finished second in Serie A are in pot 1. Meanwhile city rivals Inter Milan made into the final 16 last year and also won their domestic league, but are in pot 2. I don't care what kind of obscure computation models are used to determine UEFA coefficient, this is proof the system is faulty.
Here is another example: Bundesliga champions VfL Wolfsburg are not a 1 seed or a 2 seed. They are not even a 3 seed. They sit comfortably atop pot 4 where they are waiting to be picked for what will be the most brutal group of death in recent memory. How the team that wins one of the big (even if not elite elite) leagues in Europe is given such a low ranking is a mystery.
I am a little bitter that Inter are in pot 2 but really the drawing is one of the markers that signals the European season is in gear so that is pretty cool. For fun, my ideal group for Inter is as follows: Sevilla, Olympiakos, FC Zurich.
In sort of related news AS is reporting that Wes Sneijder has relented and agreed to leave Real Madrid for Inter for 15 million Euros. Real virtually threw him out the door and I am not super stoked about him coming over. Not bummed either but it just feels like he will be a glorified role-player in what is an already established team.
I am sure I will be back tomorrow with plenty to say.
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