Former England flyhalf Stuart Barnes believes the Investec Champions Cup should be reduced from 24 teams to just 12.
Under the current format, the top eight clubs from each of the Vodacom URC, the French Top 14 and the English Premiership qualify for Europe’s elite tournament. It features a pool phase followed by a round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final.
In his UK Sunday Times column, Barnes argues that the sheer volume of qualifiers has diluted both quality and jeopardy.
“Eighty percent of Premiership clubs qualify for Europe,” Barnes wrote. “When it is harder to be eliminated than to make the last 16, is it any surprise opinion veers from a lack of interest to contempt?”
He believes the early stages of the tournament have become bloated, with teams able to rest key players and still progress.
“To have eight of the 10 Premiership clubs competing is a farce,” Barnes said. “Europe should be the Champions Cup in deed as well as name.”
Barnes’ solution is radical but rooted in what he sees as the competition’s golden era. His proposal would see only the top four teams from each league qualify, creating a 12-team tournament.
“Forget about 16 teams making the knockout stage,” he wrote. “My version does not even have 16 teams competing.”
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Under Barnes’ model, the Champions Cup would consist of three pools of four teams, with each side playing six pool matches. The three pool winners would progress, along with the best runner-up.
“The top seed would face the best runner-up in a semi-final, while the other two pool winners play off for a place in the final,” Barnes explained.
He believes fewer teams would mean greater intensity.
“In an age of non-stop rugby, it’s better to play more meaningful matches than filling the calendar with European routs,” Barnes said. “Every bonus point would matter, as it did in the cut-throat days of those classic pool clashes.”
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