Will the new-look Champions League be more exciting?

Ahead of the Champions League returning it’s goodbye to the group stage but that’s not the only change - you’ll probably notice they’ve dabbled with the music as well.

To delve into the changes to the format Ayo Akinwolere is joined by football news reporter Matt Slater and lead writer for The Athletic FC newsletter Phil Hay.

Ayo Akinwolere, Matt Slater and Phil Hay get into the the new league structure, explain why it gets called "The Swiss Model" and how it will work in practice and to discuss why is the Champions League changing?

00:00 Intro
00:55 The new format
04:11 Why did they decide to scrap the group stage?
09:46 Why every game matters
11:51 A potential “super league”
19:27 Why UEFA considered this format
23:57 Can you own a tournament format?
24:38 Who makes the changes?
33:10 Fans & the new format
36:59 Theme tunes changes
39:22 Outro

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[duderino]

i am new here and i never heard of this matt slater guy, but holy shit how much wisdom did u just pass to all of us? thank you mate!

[BlueBloodPenn]

The idea that this will make “every game matter” or increase jeopardy is purely spin. It doesn’t. It just means that instead of game week 4 where it starts to get stale it will be game week 6. The changes are purely about increasing revenue, nothing more.

[jadmantoura]

The simple answer is more games = more money.

More is more as far as UEFA are concerned.

[chrisjsewell]

Every game will NOT matter. Have you not seen the NBA; no one gives a shit until the playoffs. This is that

[zsht]

Short answer: no.
Big teams facing big teams more often is more lucrative, but less exciting

[TheXiconhoca]

It's amazing how much time spent discussing the money involved, the product, the show, the potential and the platitudes around this and very little is left for the human side of things.

Not only are players already overplayed and getting injured more than ever before, not Everyone can travel around to follow their teams and support them.

The big guys are eyeing only the dollar signs and as usual, losing the fact that, it's fans that made and make the sport. Fans will just drop and simply either follow teams from a afar or just stop altogether.

This was never about variety and more fairness and excitement, it's about more money at the detriment of finite resources: the players and fans.

What happens when there's nobody left?

[highnoon]

Feels weird that the Champions League highlights are on BBC rather than ITV (RIP dozens of advert breaks). And to make things even more disorientating, Martin Tyler, Mr Sky Sports until last season, is one of the commentators on this new show. It's like a fever dream. This is like when they starting putting Sonic in Mario games. They are mortal enemies.

[danibolas]

never took the time to comment but ayo is the man

[freescoring]

League phase could work but letting 24 team go to KO stage is a slap in their own face.

[nickfenn]

Cmon man why you gotta do us dirty like that. Spurs are not in the champions league this year 😭😂

[andrewness]

144 games to eliminate 12 teams. That alone tells you the vast majority of matches are completely irrelevant.

[crayontom]

It will generate more money. And that, when all is said and done, is the most important thing 🥴

[mickeyhynes]

I like the Swiss model. I don' think it alters the competitive advantage of the big clubs, but we do get more variety of opponents.

[lapprentice]

They should make it even more jeopardy:
Top 1 through 8, got seeded into the bracket on round of 16.
9th through 16th vs. 17th through 24th playing 1 match single elimination play off match at the home at team finished 9th though 16th. The winner of play-off matches are unseeded team, will be drawn into the the bracket.

[EverythingFootball-rp]

The match ups look good and i already know the drama for qualifying for the r16 will be gold but i feel bad for the players. But me personally i think if uefa actually reduced the ucl to 30-24 it would be way better

[babangteo]

It's actually UEFA affirmation of Real Madrid's Super League concept.

[milesburgin]

Gotta say, having Spurs in the thumbnail is top banter... but they do have the same chances of winning the Champions League this year as Arsenal does.

[paolochop]

Played this on football manager many times. As long as you make the playoffs it’s cool. So take it easy and just ensure you have enough points to progress. Lots of dead rubbers.

[_Super_Hans_]

I like the idea of the new format, but what happens when a teams at the bottom of the league play against each other and they can't mathematically get out of it? Or if a team has already qualified and they play someone who can't get out of the bottom third?

[paddya]

Will this convoluted, compromise of a competition be successful? Well, interest in most of the group stage games was waning so the genius idea of increasing the number of them.. how could it fail?