Prospects and Parity Ahead for 2010 Champions League

As intrigu­ing as the cur­rent edi­tion of the Cham­pi­ons League may be, there’s a chance the 2009–2010 tour­na­ment could be one of the strangest, parity-rich events in foot­ball his­tory. Seems some­one has taken the snow globe that is Euro­pean foot­ball, given it a good shake and the flakes aren’t land­ing where peo­ple expect.

The tables in Ger­many, Hol­land, Por­tu­gal and even Italy don’t resem­ble what we’ve come to expect as sta­tus quo, and as a result, the trickle-down to next year’s Cham­pi­ons League could be  fas­ci­nat­ing.  Not only could you have some very fresh names, faces and kits in the fray, but they’ll be usurp­ing some very estab­lished enti­ties, includ­ing a cou­ple of past champions.

Start­ing in Italy, where Inter Milan is in the lead with 24 points, you’ve got a gag­gle of teams behind Mourinho’s men that includes Napoli, Udi­nese and Genoa, all within four points of the top, and all within at least a shot of get­ting into the qual­i­fy­ing rounds. And stand­ing on the out­side look­ing in would be Juven­tus, Roma and Fiorentina, three teams that are in the hunt in this year’s Cham­pi­ons League.

Not even Eng­land is immune to this phe­nom­e­non. Despite the Big Four of Chelsea, Liv­er­pool, Arse­nal and Man­ches­ter United being entrenched as the top four, Hull City had a promi­nent spot near the top of the table for much of the open­ing weeks, and they’re still within reach in sixth posi­tion with 20 points, only one shy of the top four.

The best story might be in Ger­many, where Hof­fen­heim has been at the tippity-top of the Bun­desliga alone until this week­end. Hof­fen­heim may be in there for the dura­tion; it’s won five in a row and now shares the lead with Bayer Lev­erkeusen. Bay­ern Munich is charg­ing hard and it will be tremen­dous to watch if Hof­fen­heim can find a way to hang on.

Az Alka­maar, mean­while, took over the lead in the Dutch Ere­di­visie and has the lone auto­matic Cham­pi­ons League group stage spot right now. Behind AZ? Well, sure, Ajax is there, but so is NAC Breda and Gronin­gen. Breda and Ajax are tied on points with Az, and Gronin­gen two points out.

In Por­tu­gal, if things ended today, F.C. Porto and Sport­ing would be OUT alto­gether. OUT. Sport­ing, which has already earned a spot in the knock­out round, is five points out, and Porto’s mis­er­able start has it even fur­ther back. Leixoes is in the lead. Who? Leixoes. Nacional da Madeira is three out and Mar­itimo five back. Ben­fica is the lone giant in the top three. And Ben­fica is some­what woe­ful as far as big clubs go.

It’s early, but it’s fun to look ahead and acknowl­edge what these min­nows are doing. The longer it goes like this, the more fun it becomes. And per­haps next August, you just might see­ing a Cham­pi­ons League draw with clubs such as Hof­fen­heim, Az Alka­maar and Leixoes join­ing Inter, Chelsea and Barcelona in Pot 1. Now how much fun would that be?

Tagged as: Az Alkamaar, Genoa, Hoffenheim, Hull, inter milan, Leixoes, napoli, Porto, Sporting, Stoke, udinese