UEFA is at it again, the European football governing body has been making bold changes to their major tournaments. They have already made changes to the upcoming Euro 2024 through the inclusion of a play-off system to determine which countries will participate in the tournament and now they have set their sights on the biggest club football tournament in the world – UEFA Champions League (UCL).
UCL Changes
As football fans, we all love the champions league and it is the trophy every club in Europe desires to win, even more than their own domestic league competition, hence there are some mixed reactions from fans about these changes. Currently, 32 top clubs across Europe’s top 5 league’s compete in the UCL which begins with the group stages.
The teams are divided into 8 groups containing 4 teams and the groups are decided through the traditional UCL group stage draw ceremony where all the 32 teams are split into 4 pots and usually notable football personalities and former legends participate in drawing these teams from each pot. Now, forget what you just read because from the 2024/25 season there won’t be a group stage any longer.
Yes, you read that correctly. UEFA has decided to increase the number of participating clubs from 32 to 36 and completely abolish the current group stage format. Instead, it will be a league format where each team will play 8 total matches (4 home and 4 away).
At the end of this league phase, the top 8 teams ranked by their points will automatically qualify for the round of 16 knockout phase. Teams that finish 9th-25th in the league phase will play a two-legged knock-out phase play-off to make up the remaining 8 teams in the round of 16. What is UEFA’s obsession with play-offs?
It’s essentially having a preliminary round of 16 knockout phase to reach the actual round of 16 knockout phase. Currently, if a team finishes 3rd in the UCL group stage, they are automatically demoted to the UEFA Europa League (UEL) but in the upcoming season this will not be happening anymore because all the teams that finish 25th or lower in the league phase will be eliminated from the UCL with no access to the UEL.
How matches are decided
In the new league phase, as I said each of the 36 teams will play against 8 different teams but how exactly are these 8 opponents decided? according to UEFA, each team will be ranked in 4 seeding pots and and will be drawn to play 2 opponents from each pot thereby playing an opponent from each pot home and away. As mentioned earlier, the teams that finish between 9th-25th in the league phase will compete in a play-off to determine the remaining 8 spots of the round of 16 knockout phase.
The play-off fixtures will also be determined through seeds. Each team that finishes between 9th-16th will play against a team that ranked 17th-24th. So for example: Team A – ranked in 11th place could play against Team B who is ranked in 19th place and of course these 2 teams will face off twice, home and away which is basically how the round of 16 currently works. If that wasn’t confusing enough, this next bit surely will be. Remember we said that the champions league will increase the number of teams from 32 to 36, determining where these additional four teams come from is quite complicated.
2 Places: 2 of these places will go to Europe’s top performing league’s this season. For example: if by the end of the season, the English Premier League (EPL) and Serie A are ranked as Europe’s top 2 leagues then one team from each of these league’s will get the spot.
As we know, the top 4 teams that finish in their domestic league automatically qualify for the champions league which means that the spot will go to the next best team in the league which does not automatically qualify, thereby the fifth place team. So in this scenario, if Tottenham conclude the season at 5th place they would qualify along with the top 4 teams in the EPL. Similarly, if Fiorentina finish at 5th place then they would claim the second new spot and qualify along with the top 4 teams in Serie A.
1 place: 1 spot would go to the third-placed team in the fifth ranked league in Europe. So for example: If at the end of this season, the Eredivisie is the fifth ranked league in Europe then the third-place team in Eredivisie would qualify for the champions league which means that the fourth-placed team who would usually participate in the UEL would instead be promoted to the UCL. So in this scenario, F.C. Twente could finish the league at 3rd place and claim this UCL spot while AZ Alkmaar, if they finish 4th would be promoted from UEL to UCL.
1 place: This one is a straightforward selection. Currently the UCL has 4 qualifying rounds to determine 4 teams that will enter into the group stage who do not automatically qualify through their domestic leagues. In this current format, the losing sides from these qualifying rounds enter into the UEL group stage. This same format will continue in the upcoming season, however instead of 4 teams entering the UCL group stage via these qualifying rounds, it will be 5 teams because of this additional spot.
My final thoughts on these changes are: firstly it is very complicated the way eligible teams are decided to participate in the tournament and I personally don’t like the new format of utilising a massive league with the top 8 sides automatically qualifying and the rest of the teams having to play additional play-off games to qualify for the remaining 8 spots.
I believe this complicates things further and also the fact that some teams are going to play more games than others seems unfair. Secondly, the additional matches would cause heavy fatigue and higher risk of injuries for players because even currently players have to compete in multiple club tournaments and continue playing for their national teams as well.
With this new format, this will be amplified further and no doubt players will burnout much before the season comes to an end. I never saw anything wrong with the current group stage format, it’s been working for years and I don’t think many players or clubs have too many complaints about it. UEFA’s excuse for changing the format is to make the tournament more competitive and enjoyable for the fans but if we’re being honest it’s because they want to profit as much as possible from these tournaments.
Simply put, UEFA could have easily extended the competition from 32 to 36 teams without changing the format. That way there would only be a few additional matches for teams to play and the tournament would still be as competitive as it is now. Clearly this is a ploy for additional matches which means more viewerships, more sponsorship deals and ultimately more money in UEFA’s pocket.
