The New Champions League Format Explained

The Uefa Champions League is changing. In 2024/25 we will have a new look competition. It is being dubbed the “Swiss Model”.

What is that? What will the Champions League look like? Who stands to benefit? More importantly, who stands to miss out?

Matt Slater and Seb Stafford-Bloor write, Philippe Fenner illustrates.

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[fedb]

agnelli destroying champions league like he's destroying Juventus. I appreciate the consistency

[homosapien]

The historic performance aspect is troubling.

[filippobernini]

Agnelli: "My ideal Champions League."
Still Agnelli: "Let's do a Super League."

[calum]

It's ridiculous. Allowing 'big clubs' that underperform into the champions league undermines the integrity of the competition. Qualification needs to be based only on performance. As always, UEFA protect the interests of the wealthy clubs and care only about money.

[prometheustv]

UEFA: If it ain’t broke, fix it until it’s broken

[deib]

Friendly reminder that Porto, Benfica and Nottingham Forest have the same UCL titles than Agnelli's "Super Juventus"

[abhijitpadhi]

Agnelli is like the most greediest chairman ever. That guy once was saying how Atalanta should never be allowed to play in the Champions League after "just one good season".

[troygrindley]

It’s the ‘more games for the fans’ ploy to increase the revenue and commerciality. The typical type of thing I expect in football these days. Absolute disgrace.

[siljalaine]

And UEFA claims that Europa super league is only about money

[thegourmetgorilla]

They’re only doing this to stop ‘shocks’ from happening because they want RM v juve rather than Ajax v Porto

[Hakuu_A]

I will never understand the need to change something that was never broken

[SunsetSheen]

Uefa: “the super league is driven by greed”

Also Uefa: “here’s an overly complicated 36 team ucl format where everyone and their mother gets in bc this is purely a money grab”

[jaskaransingh]

Less frequent encounters of top clubs like Barca vs Bayern or Juve vs Real, etc. makes them special in the first place.

[EmpireOfTheBarnacle]

There will be actual members of UEFA watching this to understand what the hell is going on

[selcukmilne]

UEFA: "We dont want any Eastern European, Balkan or even underdog top five league teams in CL. We want the biggest ones to make more money."

[dvoob]

Also wish you would have touched on how this format will make it even more difficult for non-powerhouse sides to make it to the knockouts.

[alexanderarden]

32 teams is literally perfect for knockout tournaments. It has the perfect progression. I don't understand why UEFA wants to mess with this (same with FIFA and the WC). I will most likely start to lose interest in the CL now ; /

[VikasYadav-wdyw]

You don't know how good it is to see, Porto beating Juventus and Ajax booting real Madrid, they just want to spoil that fun.

[GregorySpikeMD]

This whole competitive model is built around historically well-performing clubs and it should end. Competition should be about how good you are right now, not how good you were 5 years ago. It's against everything that sports stands for.

[varunmalavan]

The whole point of UCL nights is to see big teams play rarely to make it special like a new years event....to see them play once in 2 weeks would make it normal and boring...it loses the big game effect on it