Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Jose Mourinho Blames UEFA for Champions League Draw















Jose Mourinho is not
very happy with how his team will enter the Champions League draw. After UEFA showed the seeded list almost a month ago, Chelsea turned out to be second seeded, despite their 2 in a row Premiership titles the last couple of seasons. Although he preferred to shut up for the moment, Mourinho turned against UEFA yesterday.

More, Arsenal and Liverpool are among the European Giants - alongside Manchester, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia, Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Inter Milan - despite their entering the competition after a qualifying round. The Portuguese showed his disagreement earlier this week.

"How can a team who has to qualify be in front of a team who goes straight into the group? The way the groups are made is wrong. For example, English champions Chelsea are lucky even to be second seeds. For me, being champions is more important than the past for seeding", said Mourinho, referring to UEFA's way of picking seeds.

The European body chooses the seeds for every competition based on their former performances in the Champions League. When adding their percentage 2 or 3 years ago, the teams get to be 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th seeded for the group stages.

Here is the complete seeded board for this season's Champions League:

1st seed: AC Milan, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United, Inter Milan, Valencia
2nd seed: Olympique Lyon, FC Porto, PSV Eindhoven, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, AS Roma, Celtic Glasgow, OSC Lille
3rd seed: Steaua Bucharest, Sporting Lisbon, Benfica, Bordeaux, Werder Bremen, Olympiakos Pireu, CSKA Moscow, AEK Athens
4th seed: Anderlecht, Dynamo Kiev, Levski Sofia, Shakhtar Donetk, Galatasaray, Hamburger SV, Spartak Moscow, FC Copenhagen

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