What will the new Champions League format mean for the competition?
We’re halfway through the final group stage before the new Champions League format is introduced next season. This seems a good a time to look ahead to that new format.
A New Look Competition
The current Champions League format has been in use since the second group stage was abolished in the 2003/04 season. That’s a long period without change, but big change is imminent in 2024/25.
Changes are being driven not just by UEFA but also by a group of powerful clubs. The clubs that wanted to create a controversial breakway Super League in 2021 are still very prominent and powerful in the game. The changes are seen as a concession to this group of clubs. The aim is to bring some of the features they wanted in a Super League to the Champions League.
More Teams
The new format will expand the group stage to 36 teams instead of 32. The four extra places will be allocated as follows:
| Qualification Criteria | Meaning in 2023/24 | Example Extra Team |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd-placed club in the 5th-placed association in the access list | 3rd-placed team in French Ligue 1 | 🇫🇷 Marseille |
| An extra domestic champion from the Champions Path of the qualifying process | One of the teams eliminated during Champions Path qualifying | 🇳🇴 Molde |
| The clubs ranked next-best in each of the domestic leagues of the two associations with the best collective performance by their clubs in the previous season | 5th-placed team in English Premier League | 🏴 Liverpool |
| 5th-placed team in Italian Serie A | 🇮🇹 Atalanta |
As you can see there, this season Liverpool would have qualified for the Champions League under the new format. If English teams perform well in European competitions again then we could see 5 English teams in the group stage next season.
More Matches
With more teams comes more matches. Each team in the group stage is now going to play 8 matches.
Each team will play against eight different opponents: four at home and four away. I think this variety will be interesting. It does mean there won’t really be easy groups or a “Group of Death” like Newcastle’s group this season any more.
Each team’s fixtures will include a spread of opponents based on the existing seeding system. As an example, Champions League holders Manchester City’s group schedule this season looks like this (with e.g. 2️⃣ indicating the seeding pot the teams were drawn from during the group stage draw):
- 3️⃣ 🇷🇸 Red Star Belgrade (H)
- 2️⃣ 🇩🇪 RB Leipzig (A)
- 4️⃣ 🇨🇭 Young Boys (A)
- 4️⃣ 🇨🇭 Young Boys (H)
- 2️⃣ 🇩🇪 RB Leipzig (H)
- 3️⃣ 🇷🇸 Red Star Belgrade (A)
In the new Champions League format, City’s schedule might instead look like this:
- 3️⃣ 🇷🇸 Red Star Belgrade (H)
- 2️⃣ 🇩🇪 RB Leipzig (A)
- 1️⃣ 🇪🇸 Barcelona (H)
- 4️⃣ 🇨🇭 Young Boys (A)
- 2️⃣ 🇵🇹 Porto (H)
- 1️⃣ 🇮🇹 Napoli (A)
- 4️⃣ 🇫🇷 Lens (H)
- 3️⃣ 🇺🇦 Shakhtar Donetsk (A)
As well as facing a great variety of opponents, this schedule also sees City play against two other top-seeded teams. In fact every team in the league stage will play against two top seeds: one at home and one away. This is one of the big draws of the format for the top clubs because they will play each other more frequently and earlier in the competition.
League Table
You’ll notice from my description above that the competition will now have a “league stage” instead of a “group stage”. This doesn’t just reflect the schedule change that I described above. It also reflects that all of the teams will now be placed into a single league table.
After the the 8 group games are played, the top 8 teams will advance to the Round of 16. Before that is played, however, a Play-Off Round will take place. Each of the teams ranked 9th-16th in the league table will be seeded and will play against one of the teams ranked 17th to 24th. The winners of those two-legged play-off ties will then progress to meet the top 8 teams in the Round of 16.
This change really makes the Champions League live up to its name and it’ll look much more like a league competition. TV broadcasts will be discussing the complete league standings regularly rather than individual group tables.
Challenges
The new Champions League format does, however, come with its own set of challenges.
UEFA has rightly been criticised because this expansion is inconsistent with its climate policy and goals. The format change adds 177 extra games across the Champions League and the other European competitions. Those matches all come with journeys for teams and fans – with a lot of those journeys being made by aeroplane.
This has in turn led to some crazy ideas being floated. One suggestion is that there will be no away fans at Champions League matches. If this happens I think it’s a real step back for the game. Fans should be the priority and governing bodies should have them way higher up their list of priorities, exactly as we discussed here recently with regard to FIFA’s expansion plans for the World Cup.
Coaches are also already concerned by the number of games their players are playing. Adding more games seems to work against their concerns, not help to resolve them. It seems crazy to add more men’s games given this context. UEFA could instead expand women’s competitions where coaches and players are asking for more regular matches to help them build consistent home fanbases.
Less Competitive?
Finally, I worry that this change is going to further reduce drama and jeopardy in the competition. Playing eight games gives a further advantage to clubs with stronger squads. Having a massive 24 teams qualify for the next round (8 directly to the last 16, 16 more in a play-off) means it’s likely that few big clubs are going to be eliminated.
The best European Cup format for spectators was still the old format from the 70s and 80s. There was no seeding and every round was a two-legged knockout tie. This created real drama and excitement. But it wasn’t acceptable to top club owners, notably Silvio Berlusconi. The biggest-named clubs didn’t like the drama and wanted more guaranteed money and to stack things in their favour.
I’d anticipate a bit more interest in the league stage next season due to novelty, but in the longer-term I wonder if it’ll remain as appealing. Only time will tell if the changes will be a success.