UEFA plans to present changes to the Champions League in March 2021 in order to avoid the creation of the European Premier League, a super league with all the most powerful teams on the ‘Old Continent’.
FIFA has already threatened teams planning to join in the European Premier League with disqualifying them from any competition organized by them and UEFA such as the Club World Cup and the Champions League respectively.
But the highest body in Europe found a ‘way’ to convince Europe’s biggest teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona not to leave the Champions League with these changes that would go into effect in the 2024-25 season.
According to information from “L’Equipe” and confirmed by “Marca”, the Champions League would be a ‘virtual’ league with 36 teams to define the participants in the round of 16.
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According to the “Marca” report, the groups would disappear and the teams would be distributed by levels that will allow more clashes between powerful teams in Europe to be seen.
Under the new format, teams would have more matches against rivals of the same level and a few against clubs of other categories; “L’Equipe” reported that there would be 10 matches in total, but “Marca” reported that the number of games is not yet defined.
The clashes will be defined randomly and the first phase would end until January, not in December as it is currently.
Those classified to the round of 16 will be defined in two parts, the eight teams with the most points in the first phase would qualify directly for this round, while the other eight would be defined in a tie.
UEFA hopes that this ‘virtual league’ format can convince teams not to join the European Premier League and would be approved in March 2021 because there are still some details to be defined.
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According to “Marca”, the new format will have more economic income in all aspects (television rights, sponsorships and marketing) and will be able to give a bigger prize to the champion (currently the winner of the competition takes a bag of around 100 million euros / 121 million dollars).
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