New Champion's League Format

[Sassy Colin]

And when they don‘t perform, more pissing and moaning in the match and manager threads. Building a competitive 22 man roster is not so easy.

Exactly, well said.

 

[chris123]

Terrible format.


But they won't be crackers cause there's no jeopardy.

There will 100% be jeopardy of not making the top 8. At most you can probably afford to lose two games. I don't mind the new format at all, I just hate that it's putting extra games on the player's bodies.

 

[altodevil]

Nothing wrong with a swiss format in principle. But more games is bad. Also there's nothing wrong with the current system.

 

[MVBDX]

It's an absolutely dreadful format.

Different clubs play against different opponents, but they are in the same group, and the points are directly compared.

How can you call it a group if all teams don't play each other?

3 points against PSV isn't the same as 3 points against Bayern. And if that system works in an actual league format, it's due to the basic fact that everyone plays everyone, so it evens out.

Imagine a group of death in current CL, yet their total points are compared to the teams from a weaker group, and let's say 3 of the teams in that imaginary group of death go out, because they gained fewer points than top 3 teams of the weaker group.

That's the equivalent of this format, especially since all current groups are from seeds 1 to 4, just like what the new CL would want to do.

No sane person would want that.

 

[marktan]

I think it's an improvement. The rankings should mean that pot 1 still faces pot 2, 3, 4, but you strip out having to face the same team twice which should make the group stage format more interesting.

The downside is the additional two games, into an already tight schedule. Eventually something will need to be done about this between all the cups and internationals going on currently.

How are the extra 4 places allocated? Wasn't there something based on historical placements? Would anyone from the PL (e.g. Liverpool) benefit for next season? Edit - 24/25 would be the season after next, so wouldn't affect next season. My bad.

Edit - the additional 4 places are allocated as such:
- A place will be given to each of the two countries whose clubs collectively performed best in Europe the previous year and will be awarded on league position. So England would often get a fifth spot, but not always.
- The fifth ranked league in UEFA each year gets an spot for their 3rd placed in their league
- One of the weaker leagues will get an auto spot for their champions

 

[RedRocket9908]

This I’m curious to know too

I might be wrong but I think its based on club Co-Efficients

 

[rcoobc]

You’d want to make it to top 8 though to avoid having to play an extra tie. This approach should actually be favored over resting your players.

Why? Why play your best players for 10 games when you can play your reserves and put your best team out in the "last 24"

SAF already played the second team in the group stage. It's just a return to that.

 

[Sandikan]

2 games extra doesn't sound too much of an issue.

8 different teams is novel, but it does mess the usual league format up.

Bit too much on the luck of the draw.
Uncertain how many big teams you'd face too. And how they decide who is at home.

Still, let's worry about being in it first.

 

[Sarni]

Why? Why play your best players for 10 games when you can play your reserves and put your best team out in the "last 24"

SAF already played the second team in the group stage. It's just a return to that.

Because it’s 8 games and you avoid playing the extra 2 which will usually not be against mugs. You will need to play decent team in 4-5 of them anyway to get good seeding and why would you not play your good team in the remaining few to reduce the workload later on?

 

[MassVolto]

I think it's fine. Group stages have been boring for years now, surely the new format cannot be worse.

It truly is, I've been playing it for a few seasons now on FM and it's absolutely rubbish. Like for instance, you only need 9-10p on avg to qualify for the plays offs which is just awful an low amount considering you're playing 8 games. I've also never faced the big guns more than on 2-3 occasions per year. ..

 

[Havak]

Anyone who has played anything competitive will tell you that the Swiss format is the best tournament format. I really think it is as well. However, I don't necessarily think it is the best for football.

I'm unsure how they are going to structure this, particularly the draws for each round. The first round of group matches will probably be seeded to some extent, just like has been previously. Maybe some kind of restriction on playing a team from the same country too, but after that I think it would be anyone can play anyone.

Normally, you'd tend to play someone who has the same record as you, but you could also be paired up or down (vs a player/team with a better current record than yourself). So, for example, Arsenal beats Atletico and Barcelona beats Bayern in the first round. Arsenal & Barcelona are 1-0 and could face each other in round two. Atletico & Bayern are 0-1 so could face each other. If ties are allowed it becomes slightly trickier to always play someone on the same score..

My main worry with the Swiss format in the way that I'm used to it is, that you don't know your next opponent until all games are completed and the next round is drawn. This isn't really an issue in itself, but in European football in particular, this method would be very hard to structure. It hurts the clubs and fans in terms of arranging travel and/or accommodation in advance to be able to get cheaper deals.

Hopefully, they have a good way to organize it. Perhaps they will just draw all the games at the start like a domestic league and I missed that part? But that just seems even more awkward to me.

Either way, I like the format as it is essentially just a league with playoffs, but I don't quite like it for football as I do other things, like chess and video games where everyone is just there in the venue for the day/weekend.

 

[a_devil_inside]

Just keep the group stages or make it all knockout games without any seeding.

 

[FootballHQ]

Do sides still drop into the europa league mid season?

 

[CM]

I think I would've been more receptive to the change if not for the increase in the number of games. Obviously it's driven by money but I know I certainly don't have the appetite for it. There's barely enough time to squeeze all the games into the calendar as things stand without creating additional obstacles.

The Champions League is already suffering from a lack of variety in matchups and I don't expect this will do anything to change that. My prediction is any novelty that might come from this will wear off pretty quick.

 

[Dominos]

Do football clubs actually get a say in these stupid format changes?

Surely there must be backlash from the clubs over the extra games, and they can use their collective bargaining to get any changes scrapped that they don't like it? Or do they clubs want this?

 

[Pronewbie]

Do football clubs actually get a say in these stupid format changes?

Surely there must be backlash from the clubs over the extra games, and they can use their collective bargaining to get any changes scrapped that they don't like it? Or do they clubs want this?

This was the compromise that clubs accepted.

 

[SilentWitness]

It’s quite fun in FM but feck having it in real life.

 

[MancunianAngels]

There are too many matches now. Throwing more into the equation is insanity.

 

[Mickeza]

Does it mean 5 qualify from EPL next year then?

 

[Mb194dc]

The group stage will still be a largely pointless procession? Just more dross games before it gets interesting.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

We are going to miss out on the debut of this new format aren't we.
And, we crashed of the last time the old format is ever going to be played.
Great. Cheers Eric.

 

[Todd]

Having one table only really works when every club play every other club. This makes the competition dumber, all in the name of a money-grab.

 

[do.ob]

Having one table only really works when every club play every other club. This makes the competition dumber, all in the name of a money-grab.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss-system_tournament

 

[RedRocket9908]

Does it mean 5 qualify from EPL next year then?

No its Germany, Italy, or Spain who get a 5th place as it stands

 

[SilentWitness]

Having one table only really works when every club play every other club. This makes the competition dumber, all in the name of a money-grab.

I actually prefer it in FM to the original system.

 

[RedRocket9908]

The new 8 game format should provide some much better matches with them being against teams of a similar co-officient, we wont have see City walk through a reletively easy 6 games every year.