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 ATHENS, Greece (AP) - AC Milan is way off the lead in the Italian League and hasn't won the Serie A title in three years. Liverpool is far behind Manchester United in the Premier League and hasn't won the English championship since 1990. Yet, Milan and Liverpool are playing for European soccer's biggest prize Wednesday, giving the Champions League a bad name.
It's not really the fault of Milan or Liverpool. The competition simply should be renamed. It's certainly not a league, and it's far from guaranteed a champion will win it. The Champions and Nearly Champions Preliminary Round, Group Stage and Knockout Cup might be a more accurate description of a competition that has changed format repeatedly over the years.
When Europe's premier club competition started in 1955, it was called the European Cup and involved the champions of the major European domestic leagues. As it grew in stature and TV began to take a far bigger interest, however, European soccer's governing body, UEFA, tinkered with the format so teams that made it to the last 16 would play each other in four groups and then revert to elimination play. But the format allowed for the possibility of big clubs getting knocked out during early rounds, and that was of no real interest to TV.
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