As matchday one approaches next week, the Union of European Football Associations Champions League anthem starts to play more than ever.
One of the competitions that excites football fans the most, the one that players dream of winning throughout their entire careers, this is truly the competition of champions — and its name does it justice.
However, this year is different. Even though the league bears the same name, it bears a completely different format.
The Champions League originated in 1955 as the European Champion Clubs’ Cup, but the name as we know it came about in 1992.
When it was introduced, the league was a knockout tournament exclusively for the champions of Europe’s domestic leagues. Around thirty years ago, the league added a round-robin group stage, making room for multiple entrants from select countries, and adopted the current name of Champions League.
For the last few decades, the Champions League has been widely regarded as the most entertaining and prestigious trophy a football team can achieve at the club level.
So, what has the UEFA changed about its format, and why?
To start, the number of teams competing in the tournament will increase from 32 to 36. This means that instead of the previous 125 matches a season, there will be 189.
With the change, the UEFA hopes to give fans more entertainment to consume. However, the last few years have been plagued with coaches and players criticizing crowded schedules. While many players might suffer physically from playing more games, the UEFA will still enjoy the extra revenue.
Also, the former group stages will be replaced by a league-style format known as the “Swiss model,” a single league table in which all the teams don’t play every other team.
Each team will now play eight matches in the league phase, and the top eight teams will advance directly to the knockout stage. Those finishing between ninth and 24th places will enter two-legged playoffs to determine which teams will join the top eight in the round of 16. Two of the four additional slots in the competition will go to the clubs with the overall best performances in the previous season.
UEFA decided to introduce the new competition system in April 2021, and the move was approved in May 2022.
Coincidentally, this movement started the day after 12 of the world’s top clubs — including Real Madrid Premier League’s Manchester United and Italy’s Inter Milan — intended to leave UEFA and create their own competition, the European Super League.
This new competition would include three leagues: blue, gold and star. Blue would be at the bottom and star at the top. It would include 64 clubs, with 16 clubs comprising the star and gold leagues and 32 clubs comprising the blue league.
The Super League’s model consists of two rounds, the league and knockout rounds, with each league split into groups of eight. This system ensures that every match counts.
Due to FIFA’s and UEFA’s disciplinary threats, the Super League never materialized, and many teams dropped out. Interestingly enough, many of the changes to the new Champions League format share some similarities with the Super League concept, such as more games and higher prize sums.
It seems that the UEFA may have introduced its new Champions League model as a direct response to the threat of the Super League. By introducing more matches, giving the UEFA more control of the revenue and making it harder for big teams to be eliminated in early stages, the model serves to prevent big teams from forming their own leagues.
UEFA already has a monopoly on big time football, and this new format will cement their power even more by convincing the big clubs to stay.
