March 13 – Details for the new format for the 36-team Champions League starting next season have been unveiled by UEFA in what is the biggest shake-up to the competition in years, designed in part to stave off the threat of a European Super League.
More games means more money and all three UEFA tournaments will expand to 36 teams – four more than at present – with the Champions League and Europa League featuring eight match rounds and the Europa Conference League six.
Whilst there is no doubt the new format will be more competitive, on paper it looks hugely complicated and is bound to initially take some getting used to.
Each club will play eight different opponents of varying standards in four single groups based around their co-efficient ranking, four home and four away.
They will face two teams each from Pot 1, Pot 2, Pot 3 and Pot 4 and it will be random as to who they are picked to play home/away. At present, teams play six group matches – home and away against three opponents – to reach the round of 16.
As part of the revamped ‘Swiss-style’ system, UEFA are introducing one ‘exclusive’ week for all three competitions, meaning the opening stage of their competitions will run across 10 midweeks rather than six at present.
Mapping out details for the expanded competition in London on Tuesday, UEFA explained there would be matches played on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday during one week in September. There will also be a blocked-out week for the Europa League and Europa Conference League.
The 36 teams in the new format will be divided into four pots of nine. Pot 1 will have the reigning Champions League winners and the eight teams with the best coefficients. This means clubs who win their domestic leagues and the Europa League champions are no longer prioritised for Pot 1.
Much like in professional tennis, clubs will henceforth be seeded for the knockout stages. That means of the last 16 sides remaining, the top two cannot play each other until the final.
The top eight seeds for the knockout phase will be decided by league position in the table, while the remaining eight will compete in play-offs – over two legs – to make 16.
Because of the complexity of the new format, the draw will now be made by computer with UEFA research revealing it would have taken up to four hours otherwise.
UEFA hopes the new format will prevent dead rubbers as teams battle it out for league position. Clubs from the same country cannot play each other in the group stage.
At the presentation in London, UEFA general secretary Theodore Theodoris told reporters: “This format is here to stay. The seeding incentivises the league phase to avoid as much as possible having dead matches.”
UEFA has ruled out playing games at weekends in order to protect domestic fixtures and also insisted there will be no promotion and relegation. Giorgio Marchetti, UEFA’s deputy secretary, said the revolutionary overhaul would mean “more big clashes and more matches with sporting interest.”
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