The lesser of two evils? Champions League announces new format from 2024

ROFLUTION · Apr 19, 2021

I thought this deserved it's own thread. Agreed some hours ago, but has been lost in all the ESL talk.

https://www.wionews.com/sports/uefa...2024-heres-everything-you-need-to-know-378649

Champions League changes format from 2024, to basically a format like ESL but bigger - a (imo) more watered down and expanded version: A league with 36 teams, where each team plays 10 games + knock outs in the end, effectively putting a lot of further games on heavy national schedules already. We've seen FIFA do it with the World Cup to milk the cow, now UEFA expands Champions League in the same fashion.

Gotta admit, I am pissed at how they pull this over the line in the midst of the ESL-announcement. If we fans are to choose something less greedy than the ESL - The new format we can choose is basically also a greedy commercial league and with a more shitty structure than the current Champions League + more watered down with more teams. Feck you UEFA, for making us choose between two evil's.

Burn both leagues please and have fan-driven football where all clubs in Europe have the 50+1 german model. Make the countries create an overall rule-set for owning football clubs, so we shouldn't pick between two evils. Discuss.

ROFLUTION · Apr 19, 2021

To be honest when I read about this new format, part of me want the more condensed/action-packed ESL format, if this is the shit we get instead.

Dirty Schwein · Apr 19, 2021

I don't understand the rules. Can someone put it in basic terms please.

cyberman · Apr 19, 2021

This is worse than the super league. It sounds.. Boring

ROFLUTION · Apr 19, 2021

Dirty Schwein said:
I don't understand the rules. Can someone put it in basic terms please.

- 1 big league of 36 teams
- Each team plays 10 matches, based on how they are seeded I believe (5 home, 5 away)
- The 8 best teams advances to the knock-out phase
- From 9th to 24 then battles over which 8 teams will also form the 16 knock-out teams ( 2 x 8 teams are now found )
- More boring stuff probably

JPRouve · Apr 19, 2021

You have to be a rocket scientist in order to understand that one. A single 36 teams league where teams only play 10 games based on their seedings. :houllier:

I'm going to stick to the ESL until I'm able to understand that mess.

U99ted · Apr 19, 2021

I'd rather the current guarantee of 6 group games than 10. Not as stupid as the "ESL", but still stupid.

miked99 · Apr 19, 2021

A league where you can come 24th out of 36 and still go through to the last 16. feck this, feck the European Super League, and feck everyone involved in this shitshow.

McGrathsipan · Apr 19, 2021

ROFLUTION said:
- 1 big league of 36 teams
- Each team plays 10 matches, based on how they are seeded I believe (5 home, 5 away)
- The 8 best teams advances to the knock-out phase
- From 9th to 24 then battles over which 8 teams will also form the 16 knock-out teams ( 2 x 8 teams are now found )
- More boring stuff probably

So in Theory the 24th best team can get to the last 8!
What a load of pony.

Football is dead.

Revan · Apr 19, 2021

This seems horrible. Cannot wait to play more teams whose names I didn't know till that day.

Skills · Apr 19, 2021

Surely the best way to expand it was to have a last 32 knockout round?

Mb194dc · Apr 19, 2021

Expanded CL is an awful idea, as is the super league with 15 teams who are permanent members.

Can it really be that difficult for all footballing authorities to get together, put the money to one side of a minute and ask themselves what fans want to watch... To me it seems quite obvious.

rhajdu · Apr 19, 2021

That is one of the main reasons why the ESL could happen. From my point of view, those 12 clubs decided to take the matter in their hand and end the corrupt reign of UEFA. I am also not sure whether this really means harm for the other clubs as the ESL committed to support them more than UEFA would do. Those clubs will also spend a lot due to the cash injection which could help the whole system.

The domestic competitions remain nearly the same if they don't expell the founders of ESL which would be suicidical. The revenue from broadcasting and sponsorship deals would disappear in thin air. The only change is that there won't be any fight for European spots except if UEFA still holds something else (and I am not sure yet what it means).

Before the 92/93 season mainly just the league winners could participate in the European Cup. Look which teams qualified for the 1990-91 European Cup. I would really enjoy to see something like that once again.

Classical Mechanic · Apr 19, 2021

JPRouve said:
You have to be a rocket scientist in order to understand that one. A single 36 teams league where teams only play 10 games based on their seedings.

I'm going to stick to the ESL until I'm able to understand that mess.

They needed to top the Nations League for confusion. Unfortunately this has features of American sports as well, in that poorly performing sides in the league structure can win it.

Sadly this is another money grab and with the expanded World Club Cup it could swallow some domestic cup competitions.

DickDastardly · Apr 19, 2021

UEFA is basically a multinational multibillionare company.

I bet they hired some new kids, and their boss gave them an assigment - "show me how to make the champions league better".

What baffles me that someone actually looked at this shitstorm of a proposal and said "yeah, not bad, i'm gonna show this to the upper management".

And then some big shot in the UEFA said "let's try this....".

No wonder the big teams went all berserk.

Offside · Apr 19, 2021

rhajdu said:
That is one of the main reasons why the ESL could happen. From my point of view, those 12 clubs decided to take the matter in their hand and end the corrupt reign of UEFA. I am also not sure whether this really means harm for the other clubs as the ESL committed to support them more than UEFA would do. Those clubs will also spend a lot due to the cash injection which could help the whole system.

The domestic competitions remain nearly the same if they don't expell the founders of ESL which would be suicidical. The revenue from broadcasting and sponsorship deals would disappear in thin air. The only change is that there won't be any fight for European spots except if UEFA still holds something else (and I am not sure yet what it means).

Before the 92/93 season mainly just the league winners could participate in the European Cup. Look which teams qualified for the 1990-91 European Cup. I would really enjoy to see something like that once again.

The ESL format looks pretty interesting. It’s first fact it’s exclusive to just a few leagues which is ridiculous including 6 English teams. The fact they don’t even have to qualify and just automatically get in is absolutely farcical.

el3mel · Apr 19, 2021

Couldn't have chosen a worse time surely ? Expanding CL when there's a possibility of no big teams anymore in the competition ? Should have scrapped this till they see what's the deal with ESL, or are they planning to have a 36 teams competition with the best teams after Bayern and PSG being Leicester and Napoli ?

sport2793 · Apr 19, 2021

Classical Mechanic said:
They needed to top the Nations League for confusion. Unfortunately this has features of American sports as well, in that poorly performing sides in the league structure can win it.

Sadly this is another money grab and with the expanded World Club Cup it could swallow some domestic cup competitions.

This is not true even in the slightest.

rcoobc · Apr 19, 2021

el3mel said:
Couldn't have chosen a worse time surely ? Expanding CL when there's a possibility of no big teams anymore in the competition ? Should have scrapped this till they see what's the deal with ESL, or are they planning to have a 36 teams competition with the best teams after Bayern and PSG being Leicester and Napoli ?

This has been in the pipe line for months. In fact they are expanding it to try and placate the big clubs.

That obviously hasn't worked.

rcoobc · Apr 19, 2021

The only thing wrong with this 36 team format is the 24 teams going through to the knockouts. Jesus Christ that is stupid.

Plus also the wildcard stuff obviously

Powderfinger · Apr 19, 2021

I think they felt that if they postponed the vote on this new format it would be tantamount to conceding that the ESL was going forward.

But, yeah, the new format sucks.

rhajdu · Apr 19, 2021

Offside said:
The ESL format looks pretty interesting. It’s first fact it’s exclusive to just a few leagues which is ridiculous including 6 English teams. The fact they don’t even have to qualify and just automatically get in is absolutely farcical.

I don't really care about ESL at this point. It doesn't seem different from a pre-season tournament. I would continue to follow Manchester United in the domestic competitions and still support my local team. The UEFA could reintroduce the old European Cup format which would be more exciting for me. Let's have a separate competition for all league winners and for all cup winners. I have never really cared about the 4th team in the Premier League battling out with the 3rd team in Seria A or whatever.

Offside · Apr 19, 2021

rhajdu said:
I don't really care about ESL at this point. It doesn't seem different from a pre-season tournament. I would continue to follow Manchester United in the domestic competitions and still support my local team. The UEFA could reintroduce the old European Cup format which would be more exciting for me. Let's have a separate competition for all league winners and for all cup winners. I have never really cared about the 4th team in the Premier League battling out with the 3rd team in Seria A or whatever.

I could see this being what happens. The clubs decide to stay in the CL and PL and just scrap the league cup or something and play twice a week every week. Then over time nobody gives a feck about the ESL. Similar when United didn’t play the FA Cup to play that old World Club Cup nobody gave a feck about. How will anybody get emotionally invested in this tournament?

Dan_F · Apr 19, 2021

Just do the Super League, but without the ring fenced clubs.

ROFLUTION · Apr 19, 2021

There's definitely some politics and PR involved in these announcement at the same time. It's so complex, but something has gone on.

One would think that the ESL would benefit more from announcing their league after this horrible format would have been announced, but something happened as to whether they had to announce the ESL first, and then the Champions League new format in the shadow of all the shit the ESL got.

jderbyshire · Apr 19, 2021

It all sounds awful.

2 man midfield · Apr 19, 2021

Ugh why do they keep fecking with it. Do the fans get no say at all?

dove · Apr 19, 2021

UEFA has lost the plot completely. Group stages were boring as it was so guess what, let's have more of them :houllier:

ROFLUTION · Apr 19, 2021

Another light / perspective on this:
1: The ECA (the big clubs) first pushes UEFA to give more commercial income to the big clubs by creating a new format, which we now see in the CL 2024.
2: Agnelli as head of this then steps down from ECA while the ESL is announced
3: Two shitty competitions are created, both driven by the greedy clubs in the ECA. They were probably just not satisfied that UEFA didn't give them everything they wanted. Hence this chaos and two shitty league formats. UEFA didn't have to push forward with this new shitty format that the ECA started though, so it's not just the ECA's greed / fault.

Teja · Apr 19, 2021

UEFA stop goddamn bending over backwards to include random clubs from Austria or Turkey and let the best European clubs take part in one European competition. No Europa League, No expanded CL nonsense.

The best teams in Europe must make it to the current CL and all will be fine.

pratyush_utd · Apr 19, 2021

ROFLUTION said:
- 1 big league of 36 teams
- Each team plays 10 matches, based on how they are seeded I believe (5 home, 5 away)
- The 8 best teams advances to the knock-out phase
- From 9th to 24 then battles over which 8 teams will also form the 16 knock-out teams ( 2 x 8 teams are now found )
- More boring stuff probably

Makes me want something like ESL more. How detached from reality are UEFA?

edcunited1878 · Apr 19, 2021

UEFA are bricking it, and it's awesome. They are the creators of this situation but they do not want to acknowledge that.

They have been expanding their competitions to justify more money. Bigger isn't always better as quality suffers. The clubs pay the players and wonder why they don't have enough rest during their domestic seasons and after the seasons. You got a meaningless Nations League, expanded Euros, and now a larger CL format with more meaningless games baked into domestic seasons? FIFA World Cup is expanding to 48 teams after 2022. Oh, and the 2022 WC is being held in the middle of a domestic season because of weather issues? WTF.

Yeah, let's just blame these clubs who don't get enough influence all while knowing they are the ones who pay these players. UEFA and FIFA are to blame just as much, if not more. They've been trying to milk the players and clubs for decades without much issues.

charlenefan · Apr 19, 2021

Wasnt this reformat one of the driving forces behind the ESL?

Its shit and UEFA are no better than the owners driving the ESL

Dirty Schwein · Apr 19, 2021

ROFLUTION said:
- 1 big league of 36 teams
- Each team plays 10 matches, based on how they are seeded I believe (5 home, 5 away)
- The 8 best teams advances to the knock-out phase
- From 9th to 24 then battles over which 8 teams will also form the 16 knock-out teams ( 2 x 8 teams are now found )
- More boring stuff probably

Thanks. It's daft :lol:

youngrell · Apr 19, 2021

Wasn’t the whole point of this to stop the ESL coming to fruition? By giving bigger clubs even further guarantees or chances of being involved.

And the ESL announcement was timed in order to screw over this announcement as the clubs obviously didn’t think UEFA had gone far enough with their arse licking.

It’s a total shit show from everyone.

ROFLUTION · Apr 19, 2021

Dirty Schwein said:
Thanks. It's daft

Death by boredom

youngrell said:
Wasn’t the whole point of this to stop the ESL coming to fruition? By giving bigger clubs even further guarantees or chances of being involved.

And the ESL announcement was timed in order to screw over this announcement as the clubs obviously didn’t think UEFA had gone far enough with their arse licking.

It’s a total shit show from everyone.

YES, that's precisely what it was. But since Ceferin and co goes ahead with this format now that there are no one left to please, it can only be seen as a greed-move by UEFA imo

hubbuh · Apr 21, 2021

Some fairly big changes are afoot and have gone completely under the radar for obvious reasons.

Can anyone confirm if the below is true?

Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date

padzilla · Apr 21, 2021

This sounds utterly dire. Then again that's modern football for you really.

André Dominguez · Apr 21, 2021

Why bother doing a 36 league team if they only play 10 matches? It's just like a broken pencil....

macheda14 · Apr 21, 2021

Harry Harries said:
Some fairly big changes are afoot and have gone completely under the radar for obvious reasons.

Can anyone confirm if the below is true?

Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date

Yes this will be a part of it. Two teams let in through their coefficient, which will then keep their coefficient high.

The funniest thing about this was Agnelli was one of the biggest proponents of these changes all the while he was cooking up the ESL.

The lesser of two evils? Champions League announces new format from 2024

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