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Did anyone watch the final round of UCL & Europa League matches this week on their TVs, with thirty two matches available simultaneously over two night?. If so, did you have any idea about what was happening? If you were fully on it, congratulations because, overall, I had no idea.

I watched the excellent TNT Sports goals programmes which flew from one match to another as and when a goal was scored. They did very well in trying to keep up with what each goal meant but it was, to misuse a current trendy phrase, a ā€œgoal saladā€.

Maybe itā€™s an age thing. Iā€™m 76 next week, but Oh for the old group stages where you could follow them through the autumn and into early December. I always felt in control of whatā€™s going on. For me, this week was chaotic.

Iā€™m sure Iā€™m not the only one who assumes this new format is all about financial income for UEFA, as well as, by the introduction of some teams who are probably not good enough to be called ā€œcannon fodderā€, shoring up the vote for the UEFA President when he next stands for re-election. Clearly UEFA have learnt from their masters at FIFA on how to squeeze the last drop of dosh out of their competitions.

Shame on them. This now set up stinks. At least weā€™ve got the knockouts to look forward to.

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