THE European Cup is on a slippery slope. It is rapidly being downgraded from a competition which was about becoming champions of Europe – ‘the best of the best’ – to one that throws in ‘the rest’, and leaves ‘the best’ outnumbered by teams that have not earned their place among the elite.
The competitive edge that has made the European/Heineken Cup such compulsive viewing since its inception in 1995 is being watereddown by a convoluted format which has been padded out with middle-of-the-road clubs, with too many matches likely to become foregone conclusions.
Most of the pressure for ill-c...