UEFA Champions League: Is One Leg Better Than Two for Europe's Best Competition?

Too many matches. Too many fixtures. Too many competitions.

However you want to put it, it has become something of a yearly ritual in English football for both coaches and players to bemoan a schedule they deem an unfair drain on their respective resources.

From December onwards, there is little time to rest before the season concludes, with international breaks only "rewarding" an increasingly select few in the top-flight not called up for national service.

Solutions mooted in England as a remedy for this increased tiredness, as well as a way of reinvigorating domestic competitions, have included adopting a continental-style winter break, to more recent discussions over getting rid of replays for FA Cup ties.

One idea that seems not to have been suggested, is the simplification of European competition—making the knockout rounds of the Champions League and Europa League one-legged ties rather than two.

Before I go any further, I should state that I realise the probability of such a move is virtually zero. Neither UEFA nor the teams taking part will likely go for any suggestion that diminishes the substantial income that comes in particular in the Champions League through the gate receipts and television money that a home game can provide.

The money is a drug that few of Europe's major clubs want to do without, hence the fear of the withdrawal symptoms that come with failure to qualify for football's premiere club competition.

But there is no doubting that a conversion to a one-match knockout round would immediately de-clutter the fixture list for teams that do progress into the latter rounds. There is also the possibility it would add a significant measure of excitement to proceedings when clubs know that every match is do-or-die.

Two-legged rounds are capable of providing matches of great intrigue. Right now, we wait to see whether, after a great result at home, Arsenal are able to hold onto, or even add to, their 2-1 lead as they travel to face Barcelona in the daunting confines of the Nou Camp.

Yet they can also be really quite dull, with ties either settled immediately with a comfortable first-leg win, or them descending into dreary affairs with neither side willing to go for it.

Of course the latter is a possibility in a single match. We have seen in international competitions, in World Cups and European Championships, how teams would defend frantically with the hope of snatching a winner in extra-time or chancing their luck on penalties.

But single matches are also capable of providing memorable classics, as evident in so many international tournaments. Pick your favourite World Cup vintage and you'll find more than one example of two fine teams pitting their very best against each other.

Now imagine Real Madrid and Inter Milan battling it out in an epic Bernabéu contest, or even an underdog in the form of a Shakhtar Donetsk or Lyon performing a memorable smash and grab at Old Trafford. An enticing prospect to me at least.

There is a phrase that goes something along the lines of, "the greater the risk, the greater the reward." And if nothing else, it means a little less traveling for our weary heroes.