The participation of Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur in this year's Champions League final made “a mockery” of the tournament and should lead to a major change.
That's the verdict of former Scotland international Ally McCoist who has called for the most prestigious competition in club football to be renamed.
Helping Rangers to 10 Scottish Premier Division titles as a player – including nine in a row between 1989-97, McCoist was a regular competitor in UEFA's flagship competition during the era in which it was revamped from being the old European Cup with its purely knock-out format to the Champions League with groups and an increased number of places for teams from the continent's major nations.
The irony is that tournament only adopted the word 'Champions' in its title after non-champion clubs started to be allowed to compete and such a tag grates with the 56-year-old who was born in 1962 – the year after Tottenham last won the League Championship.
With Liverpool , despite running Manchester City so close last season with a record 97-point haul, also enduring the longest title drought in their history, going back to 1990, McCoist has called for a radical rebranding from UEFA chiefs.
He told talkSPORT : “The tournament is effectively wrongly named. They call it the Champions League and there are probably more teams that don't win their championship in it now.
“So, effectively, the name of the tournament makes a mockery of the tournament.
“The Champions League last year was contested by two teams who haven’t won their championship in a combined total of 85 years. Think about what I’ve just said there.
“This is the point I’m making, the cup shouldn’t be called the Champions League.
“If you’re going to continue with it in this format, change the name of it.”
