New champions league format

[Camara]

This is even worse than the previous proposal.
The top 4 nations end up in the top 4 spots of the season ranking 90% of the times, so this means basically free slots for them.
The Netherlands this year is a one-off, their teams did pretty well and they had less team slots so their points had more impact than top 4 clubs'.

 

[Charles Miller]

A 10-match first phase is not a cup, its more like a league. Its a step towards the creation of an european league that is probably the long term goal.

 

[Powderfinger]

Sure someone’s already asked but who’s get in the CL if it was in place now and the PL season was over? United or Spurs?

Spurs.

It will basically be top five finishers every year for the PL, except for the occasional very rare year when PL teams did unusually poorly in Europe the previous season.

 

[Mickeza]

Sure someone’s already asked but who’s get in the CL if it was in place now and the PL season was over? United or Spurs?

Spurs if I’m reading it correctly.

 

[Luffy]

Just take the 128 best teams in Europe and throw them in a gigantic knock out tournament. Would be better than this crap.

 

[Becks00]

They had to come up with a way to get more clubs from England getting in, it's just logical I think. The epl soon enough would be having a top 7. I'm surprised they only managed to squeeze just one extra spot and not more.

 

[elmo]

They had to come up with a way to get more clubs from England getting in, it's just logical I think. The epl soon enough would be having a top 7. I'm surprised they only managed to squeeze just one extra spot and not more.

They saw how shit we look and decided just an extra spot was enough

 

[Pintu]

- How have Holland performed better in Europe this season as a nation than Spain?

It is because their total is divided by 5. Clubs from the Netherlands managed a total of 96 points, but since they only have 5 clubs in UEFA competitions, that's a pretty good average. It is not surprising with all their clubs making the KO stages and Feyenoord in the final of the ECL. But it is an anomaly. The last time a country outside the top 4 finished in the Uefa top two was in 2010/11. Back then Portugal finished the year top of the ranking with 98 points (also 5 clubs) thanks to an EL final between Braga and Porto, with Benfica in the semifinals...

Whether lower-ranked countries will benefit from ECL the way the Eredivise clubs did this year is questionable. It looks like Spain and England will have this most of the time, and sometimes Germany or Italy will make it. Basically an additional spot for countries that already have 4.

 

[Ludens the Red]

It is because their total is divided by 5. Clubs from the Netherlands managed a total of 96 points, but since they only have 5 clubs in UEFA competitions, that's a pretty good average. It is not surprising with all their clubs making the KO stages and Feyenoord in the final of the ECL. But it is an anomaly. The last time a country outside the top 4 finished in the Uefa top two was in 2010/11. Back then Portugal finished the year top of the ranking with 98 points (also 5 clubs) thanks to an EL final between Braga and Porto, with Benfica in the semifinals...

Whether lower-ranked countries will benefit from ECL the way the Eredivise clubs did this year is questionable. It looks like Spain and England will have this most of the time, and sometimes Germany or Italy will make it. Basically an additional spot for countries that already have 4.

Makes sense, but yeah this is all just for the benefit of big guns really. The way city,Liverpool and Chelsea are at the minute, can’t see this changing for years. You’d expect the conference league to follow suit and have the English/Spain/Italy finalists.

 

[uamini]

The top 2 ranked nations by year:

2022: England / Netherlands
2021: England / Spain
2020: Spain / Germany
2019: England / Spain
2018: England / Spain
2017: Spain / England
2016: Spain / Germany
2015: Spain / Italy
2014: Spain / England
2013: Germany / Spain
2012: Spain / (tie between England and Germany)
2011: Portugal / England
2010: Germany / (tie between England and Spain)

10.5x Spain
8x England
4.5x Germany
1x Netherlands, Italy, Portugal

Doesn't look very exciting. Of course adding another (weaker) team to the CL might decrease a country's coefficient so it might be a little less predictable in the end.

 

[Reditus]

I cannot get my head around the format

Is it one giant 36 team league. And each team play will 8 different sides? So if you play a team at home you won’t be playing them away?

Will it all be seeded? If so there will be no big games at all

I must be missing something here

 

[Mr Pigeon]

whats the incentive to finish 1st rather than 8th? You could win your first five games and then just not giving a feck about the last three and you’d still probably qualify.

This is the bit that I don't really get either. I understand that they need to find a way to only have 16 teams advance, so why not have 4 groups of 9; top four teams from each go through. At least you'd still get some drama. But it feels like they were just struggling to make the numbers work so they came up with this nonsense.

Say goodbye to the excitement when they dig into the pots and you find out you've drawn a tough group. This isn't for fans, it's just an excuse to have more games to the detriment of the actual game.

 

[Vidyoyo]

Stupid putting them all in one league. It should be 4x 9-team leagues with 8 fixtures randomly drawn based on coefficient rankings determining home or away matches.

The top 2 teams in each league then progress to the postseason (8 in total), with a further 8 wild card spots available to next best performing teams (16 teams).

Those 8 wildcard teams then play the top 8 teams first at home in what is effectively the same knockout stage tournament that we have now.

Edit - What Pigeon just said.

 

[Judas]

It's impressively complicated and daft. Why must everything be ruined.

 

[Champ]

This is all just a compromise to the super League clubs.

Essentially creating a super League without actually calling it that.

Pathetic all round really.

 

[Lay]

It’s basically the super league everyone didn’t want

 

[Loon]

Amazing so many people used to put stock in what was already a compromised "Champions'" league over domestic competition. It was ruined years ago.

 

[Offside]

Honestly these people making these decisions…all the things they could change about football to make it better and they come up with this. Like at United, no decision is a footballing decision.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

UEFA and FIFA are both idiots.

 

[altodevil]

Why are they changing a format that works. There are discussions to be had on seeding etc, sure, but the actual format is gold. It's doesn't need changing. I'm sick of the massive influence greed and stupidity has on football.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

- How have Holland performed better in Europe this season as a nation than Spain?

It's because of the UCL primarily. AZ were knocked out of the Europa League in the final qualifier so were parachuted into the UCL. This gave the Eredivisie 3 teams in the UCL group stages where they picked up a lot points. Ajax also won a lot of points in the CL group stage. Spain had no representative in the UCL because Villareal who were due to take up the spot won the EL last season so they were in the Champions League.

The Eredivisie had no representatives in the quarter finals of either the EL or CL so it's fair to say that the UCL has caused a big distortion in the coefficients this season.

 

[Camara]

I hate assymmetric group stages.
It's very unfair because you might face your main rival away from home just because of reasons.
Then imagine you also might face the big team at home so you have to play the medium difficulty games away from home.
Basically it's a lot more reliant on luck than a normal, proper organised group.

 

[RoyH1]

It’s basically the super league everyone didn’t want

Except UEFA still gets to keep most of the money and there will be none of the spending/salary limits that the ESL wanted to install. So all of the negatives of the ESL and almost none of the positives.

 

[Camara]

Except UEFA still gets to keep most of the money and there will be none of the spending/salary limits that the ESL wanted to install. So all of the negatives of the ESL and almost none of the positives.

Can we please stop normalising the Super League antics?
Despite this change being tons of crap there are still major differences between the Super League and this, especially the 2 main crimes of the former: closed league and non-merit qualifications.

 

[Slice]

36 teams in competition from 2024/2025.

 

[PedroMendez]

The new qualification rules seem to be rubbish, but I am open to the change from the group stages to the league format. Its not like that the groups were particularly great or fair.
A lot depends on how matches in the league-phase are determined. Is there any information about this?

 

[Slice]

The new qualification rules seem to be rubbish, but I am open to the change from the group stages to the league format. Its not like that the groups were particularly great or fair.
A lot depends on how matches in the league-phase are determined. Is there any information about this?

Me thinks also a format into the group stages.

This:

6 teams into every group.

2 best teams into round 16 and 4 best 3rd place teams into round 16.

Me wondering about 5 english club's into the group stages anyone had knowledge about?

 

[RoyH1]

Can we please stop normalising the Super League antics?
Despite this change being tons of crap there are still major differences between the Super League and this, especially the 2 main crimes of the former: closed league and non-merit qualifications.

Which they already said they were going to change after the Sky news fueled outcry. I'm just trying to bring some nuance to the debate in which the SuperLeague is the bad nasty monster and UEFA is a knight in shining armour. The same UEFA that gives only 20.000 tickets to Liverpool and RM fans but then keeps 35.000 for itself. Too much money is being funelled away from clubs and into the pockets of directors.

 

[Camara]

Which they already said they were going to change after the Sky news fueled outcry. I'm just trying to bring some nuance to the debate in which the SuperLeague is the bad nasty monster and UEFA is a knight in shining armour. The same UEFA that gives only 20.000 tickets to Liverpool and RM fans but then keeps 35.000 for itself. Too much money is being funelled away from clubs and into the pockets of directors.

Yes, definitively that. UEFA is not the good guy in the slightest, just the better of 2 evils.

 

[Player Red]

How will the matches in the group stage be determined? An open draw or seeded?

 

[UnitedSofa]

It’s not a league though, there’s more group games, why are people getting confused?

 

[PedroMendez]

It’s not a league though, there’s more group games, why are people getting confused?

i thought that they introduced the "swiss-league" system, meaning, that all clubs are in one league, but each club is playing only against 8 team to determine the the final outcome. The first 8 teams qualify directly for the KO stage, while 9-24 play against each other to determine the other 8 teams, who move to the KO-stage.

 

[Thunderhead]

i thought that they introduced the "swiss-league" system, meaning, that all clubs are in one league, but each club is playing only against 8 team to determine the the final outcome. The first 8 teams qualify directly for the KO stage, while 9-24 play against each other to determine the other 8 teams, who move to the KO-stage.

yeah, that was my thought, won't they just split in into 2 halves where the top half play the bottom half using the same sort of seeding that they use now.

edit - which thinking about it can't be right as that would be a bore fest

 

[Dave Smith]

This 6 game Swiss League nonsense has disaster written all over it. You know they're going to seed it, so now the top 8 clubs will have group/league games that primarily consist of beating up the smallest 8-12 clubs that qualify for 6 games.

Honestly, if that is the idea, I will probably not watch as it'll be like what the Euros have become since it expanded to 24 where the groups are dire as everyone knows exactly who is qualified prior to a ball being kicked. The Euros for me is now pretty unwatchable until the quarters; barring the odd last 16 match.

For me, I can see why the felt a change was needed as the CL could do with a bit of a shake up as it is played every year. However, imo they should've gone with something like:

1) The initial 32 teams play a KO round to then leave 16 teams in a Swiss format of 8 games. Top 4 qualify for the Semi's.

2) Reverted back to the two group stage format. That format, if applied to now, would work better than it did then as some of the second round groups would be very tasty.

 

[Nicolarra90]

A 10-match first phase is not a cup, its more like a league. Its a step towards the creation of an european league that is probably the long term goal.

Well it's called champions league...

 

[mitchmouse]

A 10-match first phase is not a cup, its more like a league. Its a step towards the creation of an european league that is probably the long term goal.

pretty much always has been, which is why they were so pissed off when someone looked to have beaten them to it

 

[mitchmouse]

It's impressively complicated and daft. Why must everything be ruined.

if you'd ever watched the draw, with the dancing doves and weirdo graphics and 20-minute introduction for people drawing balls out of a bowl, you'd know that this is just what UEFA always do!

 

[Raees]

Bring back the Super League!

 

[Red the Bear]

So are the knockout rounds a single match from now on?
That will suck.

 

[Charles Miller]

Well it's called champions league...

This is what i said. This format with so many clubs is not about the "champions" of the respective leagues and national cups. Its a step into the creation of a continental league.