Champions League Potentially a new format from 2024
UEFA are willing to modify the current Champions League format and the organisation’s president, Aleksander Ceferin, is expected to explain his new plan to the 55 European federations in a meeting on Tuesday, February 9.
Following leaks about several top clubs contemplating the idea of a new European Super League, UEFA admit that the Champions League model needs be changed, but they are not willing to do so before the summer of 2024.
The European football governing body is expected to take decisions on the future of the competition in March after listening to all the parties involved.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport have reported, UEFA’s favoured idea is the new group stage consisting of 36 teams divided into six groups of six, which would mean each side playing a minimum of 10 games.
At the end of the group stage, all standings will be unified with the top eight qualifying automatically to the last 16 and the next 16 teams competing for the remaining eight spots through play-offs.
The teams who reach the Champions League final will have played 17 games, compared to the 13 disputed under the current format.
In total, the number of games will be increased from 125 to 209, but no team will have a fixed spot in the competition, contrary to the new Super League project.
What is certain is that UEFA are not willing to proceed to any changes until the 2024/25 season.
The teams involved in the creation of a new competition are not expected to accept UEFA’s proposal, as they are willing to proceed to an imminent change.
Meanwhile, there is no talk about the new Champions League format’s revenues, but UEFA will struggle to reach the 350 million euros which will be allegedly distributed to the Super League participants, or the 500m euros to be earned by the tournament’s winner.
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