The number of matches each team will play in the league that will replace the current group stage will be reduced from ten to eight and no seats will be ‘manually’ allocated
The revolution of the Champions is finally taking shape. UEFA’s Executive Committee gave the green light on Tuesday for the new format that will structure the top continental competition of the 2024-25 season. The system that will be launched will bring significant changes from the initially planned model by which the governing body of European football seeks to bury the controversy that had unleashed the possibility of assigning places ‘by finger’ rather than to pay attention only to meritocracy and also to overcome the resistance of the major leagues, who saw their own cause threatened by the increase in matches and the possibility that some days would be played on weekends.
Ultimately, it won’t be as UEFA has chosen to smooth things over. The main changes made in relation to the project announced on April 19, 2021, are the reduction from ten to eight of the number of matches that the 36 participants will play in the new competition based on the so-called “Swiss system” that the current phase of the groups and the disappearance of the places allocated ‘with the finger’ to clubs which, according to their coefficient, have not qualified for the sporting merits accumulated over the past season.
From the 2024-25 season, 36 teams will participate in the Champions League, instead of the current 32. This will lead to the disappearance of the group stage, which has been a constant since the current model was consolidated, and its replacement by a competition in which each team will play eight games against eight different rivals (four at home and another four away), instead of the current six games against the three opponents in their pool. These matches will be played in the ten weeks foreseen in the calendar set in April 2021 and are not intended to be held over the weekend, an option that disrupts domestic competitions. Only the final, as is now the case, will be played on the weekend.
The top eight teams in the group automatically qualify for the knockout stages, while the ninth through twenty-fourth teams play a two-legged draw to secure advancing to the Champions League round of 16.
With regard to the four additional places created by the increase from 32 to 36 teams in the Champions League stage, they will be distributed as follows. A place will be awarded to the club ranked third in the Championship, from the association ranked fifth in UEFA’s national association rankings. Another goes to the winner of a domestic tournament, increasing the number of clubs that qualify via the so-called ‘champion route’ from four to five. The last two places go to the federations with the best collective performance of their clubs in the previous season. Based on this last criterion, England and the Netherlands would have had an extra representative at the next edition of the Champions League.
Similar format changes will also apply to the Europa League (eight matches in the league phase) and the Conference League (six matches in the league phase) and both competitions will also feature 36 teams in that phase.
The UEFA president welcomed the changes in the format of European tournaments, which aim to increase their attractiveness and the turnover they generate, and gave them as an example of his commitment to an inclusive practice that focuses only on sporting earnings, as opposed to the initial Super League approaches that established a closed competition. “UEFA has clearly demonstrated today that we are fully committed to respecting the fundamental values of sport and upholding the main principle of open competitions, with a ranking based on sporting merit, fully in line with the values and model supporting European sport Aleksander Ceferin claimed.
“We are confident that the chosen format strikes the right balance and that it will improve the competitive balance and generate strong revenues that can be distributed to clubs, leagues and grassroots football across our continent, while enhancing the appeal and popularity of our club competitions.” , emphasized the Slovenian leader, who placed special emphasis on the consensus generated by the new model, which guarantees that “the dream of participating will remain for all clubs”.
Source: La Verdad
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