Congratulations! Riyadh won the Champions League wild card, Ronaldo was revealed to return to Europe, and he can rush for the 2024 Golden Ball Award!
It is only a matter of time before the upcoming Champions League restructuring is implemented, and the few changes that can be confirmed are that the Champions League will be expanded from the original 32 teams to 36 teams, and the group stage will also be adjusted to a more complex Swiss system, one of the most notable changes is the new "wild card system" It is reported that there will be 4 additional wild card spots after the expansion to 36 teams, UEFA President Ceferin is planning to give the wild card to Riyadh Victory, if the plan goes well, Ronaldo will return to the Champions League that he is proud of, this possibility has sparked a carnival among some of its fans, which seems to indicate that the competitive level of the Saudi league has been recognized, and Ronaldo's previous praise for the Saudi league is true.
But unfortunately this is another rumor, because this is just the wishful thinking of the Saudis, this fantasy comes from a Saudi Arabian fan journalist, the reporter's news points out that after Ronaldo joined, Riyadh Victory has become one of the three most concerned clubs in the world, because they are highly known in Europe, so UEFA intends to give out wild cards to Ronaldo's team, and the Saudi Football Association hopes that other teams in the Saudi Super League can also participate in the Champions League, they believe that this cooperation will have a huge benefit. In other words, UEFA is interested in the Saudis' money, and the Saudis want to use their money to buy all the places. But is this scenario possible?
Hardly, even the expanded quota places are not enough for those European clubs, not to mention that UEFA wants to take care of other teams outside the association. At the end of the day, UEFA is a service organization, and it is their responsibility to ensure the fairness of the participation of each team, and if the Saudis do buy the quota places with money, then this fairness will no longer exist, so the Saudi league is no longer considered at all. According to UEFA's original idea, they planned to give the four extra places to the league with the fifth highest European points in the past five years, one to other European leagues other than the current five leagues, and the remaining two wild cards to teams with high European points in recent years but did not qualify for the Champions League. But this has been opposed by other small and medium-sized clubs in Europe, who believe that UEFA is taking care of those big clubs, and now there are two wild cards, and there will be more wild cards in the future, so that other small and medium-sized clubs will not have the opportunity to play, and the Champions League will eventually become a condensed version of the European Super League, becoming more and more closed.
In addition to the point of view of fairness, from the point of view of competitive factors, the teams of the Saudi Super League are not qualified to participate in the highest level of club competitions in Europe, at the beginning of this season, Ronaldo led Riyadh to win a warm-up match with many European teams, facing Celta and Benfica when they were defeated by opponents 5-1, 4-1 humiliation, Luo fans may refute that it is a defeat that has not yet ended, the Riyadh victory after the reinforcement has been transformed, Ronaldo can compete with Haaland, Kane and others for the top scorer of the year, this brainless refutation reflects an embarrassing reality, the so-called Champions League king of his own strength, without high-level teammates can not move an inch, just like after leaving Real Madrid, Aveiro in the tournament honors, personal honors in the hands of nothing.
Riyadh Victory, even with the most luxurious foreign aid allocation in the entire Saudi league, has never topped the league standings this season, because the seven foreign players can only barely drag Aveiro. Portugal's situation is the same as Riyadh's victory, without Aveiro, Portugal's players can face the weak team and can let go of it, and once they are on Aveiro, the weak team can get Aveiro's good protection and avoid suffering a big score. When France can play a 14-0 score against Gibraltar, the luxurious Portuguese national team has only scored two goals against the world's 200th Liechtenstein, and Iceland in 67th place, you know that Mr. Aveiro is the true patron saint of Europe's underdogs.
Savvy-minded Aveiro fans should be aware that the group stage under the Swiss system will become 5 home and 5 away, a total of 10 rounds, and the increase in the number of games is a big threat to Aveiro's record of the all-time goalscorer in the Champions League.