Your opponent didn't just buy 8 star players, Sgdgolf.

You are seeing them as having 8 stars because of the difference of 2 levels between the two of you. That said I do get your frustration but this is simply the current design of the Cup competition.

That doesn't mean of course that the design can't be altered or changed completely. With the updates Top Eleven received this year alone it shows that the devs are reading player feedback and are working on improving the game as a whole.

Now whether or not the changes are easy or difficult to apply is something only the devs of Top Eleven will know for sure. Designing a game is not just about manipulating it's code. Every facet you change can leave ripples in the design philosophy of the game and inadvertently cause harm to how other systems operate. The game is one whole, it is a sum of it's parts and everything you nip and tuck will affect everything else around it. That's why designing and redesigning takes varying amounts of time.

I want to remind that with the latest update the number of clubs that can compete in a Cup competition group has been reduced to 64 Clubs down from 128. This was done with the intention of making the Matchmaker system have an easier time when grouping up Clubs and thus has significantly reduced the chance to end up in a Cup group where there is an outrageous level disparity.