Six reasons why the Champions League is better than the World Cup

The Champions League concludes tomorrow, and in a few weeks the World Cup will kick off. It is unquestionably the most eagerly awaited sports championship on the planet,more than even the Olympics. But as an all-round package, there is a good case to be made for the Champions League trumping the World Cup on every other count. It has for several years now been a superior tournament.Superior in what way, you might ask. Here goes :

#1 More quality

 

Thanks to TV rights and sponsorships, Champions League clubs have the money to build teams as they wish, cherry-picking the best talent from a variety of nationalities. Arsenal rose to great heights with the first completely all-foreign team in history, and once started a Champions League match with players of 11 different nationalities! Real Madrid’s galacticos were similarly drawn from across Europe.

National teams on the other hand have to make do with what they have. George Best tasted continental success with Manchester United, but in the colours of Northern Ireland he looked rather like an Olympic swimmer in a bathtub. The same is true for George Weah, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Roy Keane, among others – Ibra is the world’s highest paid footballer, but he won’t feature in Brazil.

Quite simply, quality rules. And that’s where the money is, so Europe’s most talented managers also prefer working for clubs rather than national sides.