'It's crazy!' – Arsenal, Man Utd, Juventus and Wolfsburg are already out of the UEFA Women's Champions League, so is it time to change the format?

Marc Skinner has sparked an overdue debate by claiming that there are teams in the group stage that are "not good enough"

Five months ago, Wolfsburg and Arsenal played out an enthralling conclusion to their Women’s Champions League semi-final at the Emirates Stadium. After a 2-2 draw in the first leg, the same scoreline took the second leg to extra time in London and it seemed destined for penalties – until Pauline Bremer’s 119th-minute winner sent the German side into the final.

It was an incredible tie, full of goals and drama of the highest quality. Yet, when the group stages of this season’s UWCL get under way next month, neither side will be involved. Both are former champions, both are among Europe’s elite in the women’s game but, like other big names such as Juventus and Manchester United, both have failed to get out of Champions League qualifying, with Paris FC performing some impressive giant-killing to deny them their places.

This isn’t the first time clubs of this size have fallen in the preliminary stages since a revamp of the competition two years ago. Indeed, Manchester City have twice been the big scalp, losing on both occasions to Real Madrid.

But that this season has produced a rather eye-catching list of eliminated teams has raised plenty of questions about the UWCL’s qualifying format. Is it already due a change?

Getty Images'We deserve to be at this level'

Nothing has stirred the debate up quite like the comments Man Utd head coach Marc Skinner made after his team lost 4-2 on aggregate to Paris Saint-Germain in the second qualifying round earlier this week.

“We deserve to be at this level, I’ve no doubt about that,” he said. “There are teams going through to [the group stage] that are not good enough. Our standard is better than that standard and it’s crazy that we have to play PSG in this qualifying round. Crazy! And it needs to be something that’s addressed.

“The word is crazy. You saw how hard we had to work last year to get into a qualifying round. It’s crazy, right? Look how far Arsenal went last year, look how far Chelsea went, and yet we’re still having to qualify? It doesn’t work. And if something doesn’t work, you should look at fixing it. Wolfsburg have gone out tonight. They were in the final last year. Mad. That can’t happen, right?”

Given this was Man Utd’s first ever appearance in the UWCL, Skinner understandably ruffled feathers with his remarks – but the debate is still worth having.

AdvertisementGettyAn elite club

To be part of the group stages of the Women’s Champions League is to be part of an elite club. Only adopting its current format two years ago, having been a straight-knockout competition prior to that, just 16 teams participate in this round, in four groups, as opposed to the men’s competition which features 32 teams in eight groups.

It means qualifying is more difficult because there are fewer spots on offer. Indeed, only four teams qualify directly for the group stage – the champions of Spain, France and Germany, plus the reigning European champions. If a team meets both criteria, such as when Barcelona won the Spanish league and the Champions League last season, then the champions of England also qualify directly.

The rest have to scrap it out in qualifying, no matter the club’s size, success or name. Wolfsburg, last season’s finalists, ended up there because they didn’t win the Frauen-Bundesliga. Man Utd and Arsenal finished second and third respectively in the Women’s Super League, so in they went – and so on.

What makes it tough for these teams, though, is that they enter a trickier qualification route – ‘the league path’. While ‘the champions path’ is reserved for teams who win their domestic leagues, such as Roma or Benfica but also smaller sides like Olimpia Cluj of Romania or Spartak Subotica of Serbia, ‘the league path’ is where a lot of the big guns from highly competitive divisions clash.

So, when you have Juventus, Arsenal, Man Utd, PSG, Real Madrid, Wolfsburg, Eintracht Frankfurt, Twente, Levante and more in the same qualification path, good teams are going to fall by the wayside.

GettyNot perfect

Skinner’s frustration is understandable in one sense. Man Utd could’ve beaten some of the teams in ‘the champions path’ rather comfortably. Indeed, they are probably a better team than some of those that have made the group stages, even. Of course, 'the champions path' is reserved for champions, though.

Furthermore, that teams like PSG, a two-time finalist, Wolfsburg, last season’s runners-up, Arsenal, who were in the semi-finals in May, and more have to go through qualification is a little harsh on them.

This format isn’t perfect, there’s no doubt about that. Since it changed, there have been so many high quality fixtures that many have remarked that they could’ve been group stage, or even knockout stage, clashes. Look at the two meetings of Man City and Real Madrid, Arsenal’s encounter with Ajax last term, this month’s incredible tie between Paris FC and Wolfsburg – there are so many to point out.

But what message would it send if a team like Man Utd, who only re-established their women’s team back in 2018, got an easy route through to the group stages of the Women’s Champions League on their first ever appearance in the competition?

GettyBuilding credit

There are teams without a name the size of Man Utd that have committed to the women’s game for a long time. Should they have to move aside just because the Red Devils have finally joined the party? Over time, those smaller teams will eventually be overtaken by rich clubs that are historically successful on the men’s side, that’s just the reality of the way the sport is going. But the powerhouses don’t need to be given that helping hand.

There are flaws in this system, of course, but Real Madrid are a good example of its benefits and how it is fair and impartial even when those huge names come to play.

When one of the biggest clubs in the world decided to invest in women’s football and secured a Champions League spot for the 2021-22 season, UEFA didn’t make qualifying part like the red sea for them to walk into the group stages, even if it would have huge commercial benefit for the governing body.

Las Blancas had no history in the UWCL and so they started from zero, facing Man City in their first campaign. Even after progressing from a relatively kind group a few months later, their second season in Europe was even trickier, with City again a qualifying opponent while the group stage draw pooled them with both Chelsea and PSG.

Real’s journey in the competition so far has been tough but that is as it should be for a new team, regardless of what the club has done in the men’s game. And they are building credit, progressing nicely and improving as a result of it.