How will the new Champions League work?

The new format for the UEFA Champions League has been confirmed. After proposing a “Swiss Model”, UEFA has taken on board feedback from member clubs and has finalised a new version of the Champions League.

But what is it? What will it mean for your club? Who is unhappy?

Written by Dan Sheldon, illustrated by Alice Devine.

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TAGS

[SuperLordPedro]

If you can't get your superleague just slowly change the champions League to one instead.

[alexandre]

Having so many clubs from the same country competing in the same European league is absurd. The gap between the top 4 and the rest is baffling, how can Ligue 1 Liga NOS or Eredivise improve like that ? With 2 or 3 times less clubs in the competition ? Having to play 8-10 matches with less squad depth than English clubs ?

[Alex-egjk]

Manchester United getting a Champions League place thanks to Liverpool and City's performance in the previous season would be hilarously stupid

[TheYEPEEE]

The more they change, the less serious this competition becomes. It’s the CHAMPIONS league, why are they trying to add more spots???

[mukudzeimlambo]

This is heartbreaking. Its even more damming when you realise that fans won't protest this and probably get used to it

[drex]

They want to add more lower level matches but big games like semis to be made into one-legged fixtures. The whole point of UCL are those high-stakes matches against big team, not boring league matches against teams you already play domestically or minnows.

[JP-vjfp]

Every change UEFA and FIFA take always involves expanding to more teams. This is the exact opposite of what needs to be done. The Champions League should be reserved for CHAMPIONS. Adding teams who finish 5th is a joke. This only serves to reduce the quality of the matches and add unnecessary filler to an already packed calendar. It also takes away from the quality of UEFA Cup aka Europa League, which has been seen as irrelevant and worthless for years now. In the end, this only serves the interest of big clubs who have larger squads and will face even easier opposition.

They’ve expanded the Euros to more teams and the World Cup too. Why not just do away with qualifying entirely and invite the whole world to participate, since that’s what these suits really want. More market, more money. They have killed football.

[MNA]

Get used to seeing the likes of Madrid, Bayern, PSG, Juventus, etc. in quarters/semis going forward. No way with this new format will you see teams like Ajax, Villareal, Spurs etc. reach far in the competition. This is essentially a proxy for European Super League.

[DenDave_]

After various explainers from various sources, i've still yet to see anyone explain how they decide your opponents in the league phase. I find this important, because a Swiss model - where you only play a portion of all the clubs in the league - will always be inherently unfair.

You could theoretically and up with a big club only having to face the 8 lowest ranked teams, while a small team who overachieved in their domestic league gets shafted with 8 games against the likes of Bayern, Real, Liverpool and City. Facing the big teams might be good for their ticket sales, but they'll have no chance whatsoever of causing an upset and progressing further into the tournament. Meanwhile the big club in this scenario gets an easy walk to the knock-outs.

[arya]

This is still a bad change for the little man. More knockout = upset results have more meaning.
More league based games = upset results have less meaning.
Norwich beat man city a couple years ago and got relegated while city won the league.
Big clubs don't get away with bad performances in a knockout format.

[Luger]

Classic English Arrogance expecting the 5th spot to be certain for the Prem and the other leagues competing for the second additional spot. Doesn't quite look like it rn.

[exaucemayunga]

Football in general, has changed so much since 2018. It's crazy to think about it.

[md.abdullaalwailykhanchowd]

I want to see more Scandinavian & Eastern European team in UCL.

[scottyc]

Its embarrasing the competition is called the champions league when league winning teams need to play qualifying games and the so called 'big leagues' get 3, 4, or 5 places automatically.

[Robi]

Champions League where team from #7 spot can play... Great idea 🙄 I'd love to see it go back to '80s where only actual Champions were allowed. Stop rewarding clubs for their name or past accolades.

[bentobox]

If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. And on a side note, I feel like no more than 16 teams from the top 5 in the champions league is perfectly balanced

[basquat]

Last thing we need is more teams from the big national league. They got plenty of spots already. What they should do is divide out spots geographically. Say Scandinavia gets one spot. The mediterranean countries gets two, baltic countries gets X amount and so on. And the champions from those countries can play each other for them. You would get some great games between neighboring countries and cover all of Europe in the process.

[cvetomirgeorgiev]

I just really dislike the idea of a "Champions" league having 1/4 of an entire league. Potentially over 1/3 possible too

[oldskoolmusicnostalgia]

Having 4 clubs from one league has already created an impressive concentration of wealth and CL winners in 2 countries, Spain and England. Now imagine what's going to happen when this goes to 5 (because if It's based on the previous season's coefficient, then guess who is going to benefit from the 2 additional spots... certainly not Moldova and Cyprus). There's already 16/17 spots from 32 going to Eng, Ger, Ita and Spa and UEFA goes: let's increase that even further but using a procedure that pretends to give everybody else a chance 🤦

[andrewfraserjr]

Well I’m going to enjoy the last few seasons of the ucl before this comes