How The New Champions League Format Actually Works
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ค. 2023
- From the 24/25 season, the UEFA Champions League will move to the "Swiss model", a new system designed to increase the drama, increase the number of teams involved and, crucially, increase the money it makes.
But how does having 36 teams in one enormous superleague actually work?
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So, they have done this system in rugby's European cup for the last few years and it heavily, heavily benefits the top teams even more than the previous system. This'll probably result in far less of smaller teams having a good run.
@@robertlee6338 That's why they are the top teams, I get the scepticisms and some hate towards the new system but let's be honest, when was the last time a small team won the Champions League? in order to use the argument "well this only helps the big teams". Maybe this way we might have some diversity in who ends up in the final cuz most of the time whoever won the champions league, usually had quite an easy tournament until the semi finals.
Isnt this way they have introduced the conference league? so smaller teams get a good run in europe, while keeping the CL "elite"
Nailed it. It favors the bigger clubs/ top teams. This should help *keep the same teams make it to the end kind of like a backdoor hybrid super league
@@joshspace99
you dont make scene
eveyone must have fair chance
That's a horrible lie, it favors teams more who play better in the group stage than the previous edition, you are extremely idiotic
I really don't like that they have a fixed path for the teams in the last rounds... Watching an icon of the sport drawing your club and it's next opponant was always a cool event.
i agree and i also don’t like how the RO16 will continue to be boring for the most part, it’ll probably be the least important stage for big teams which sucks
They do it in the world cup and its fine
@@CRAZYLEFTYYYY its not, we've had times when the one side is stacked and the other is not worth watching
@@imo098765 last 2 2 cups in a nutshell
Drawing events are nothing but a novelty.
Backdoor leading to that European Super League 😑
nah, this is it
We're getting there by increments.
Are we still pretending that the premier league isn’t the super league?
@@Football_Advanced This is an argument which will eventually result in an actual Super League. The premier league is very rich, and it is very useful slogan to claim it is the super league, but the actual super league was going to be a closed shop designed to protect the interests of a handful of useless old has-beens like the Milan clubs and Juventus (and never-beens such as Spurs and Arsenal). The PL's wealth doesn't negate its egalitarian principles of prize money distribution, promotion/relegation.
It's to stop it. Oh and to make shedloads of cash
Everyone inherently hate changes to things they love. I will be patient and wait for it to play out.
My understanding is during the league stage they want the top teams to play each other to generate more interest and money. But I assume the league stage will seeded in some way so allow the top teams to play couple of games against each other then play lower ranked teams to enable them to qualify.
The teams are seeded before the games and play a mix of opponents.
Every team plays 2 games against a team from each seed. There are 4 seeds so 8 games 4 home 4 away.
It would still be grouped seeded so you would play 2 1st seed, 2 2nd Seed, 2 3rd Seed. 2 4th Seed.
If this is a Swiss system so the way it works is that initially the top teams will play the weaker opponents. Seed no. 1 plays seed no. 19, 2 plays 20, 3 plays 21 and so on but then after 3-4 rounds, top teams will play against top teams.
It's the same as it is now, the only difference I can see is it makes it easier to see the last 8 or so qualifiers for the knockouts
4 Groups of 9 playing each Team once so 4 Home and 4 Away games.
Top 2 Qualify. Next 4 to Play-Offs. Bottom 3 Out.
That is so obviously more competitive and easier to follow - Are UEFA blind?
Much better format 👌🏽
It is currently cup format. Uefa is making it a league in the initial stages and it will allow the best teams to always make it to top 24.
There will be no issues where Barca, Bayern and Inter come in same group. All three teams could make it to top 24 most likely and the teams who performs incredibly in group stages are rewarded and a more direct comparison between the European clubs current level can be understood.
@@solo10041 There will be no issues with Barca? They got railed in the last CL and had to be given a free in the europa league and they STILL got btfo there). What makes you think this won't happen again this season?
@@victorkreig6089 There's no guarantee that Barca can qualify for round of 16. But the chances that they will reach top 24 is a sure thing and Inter, Bayern and Barca coming in same group can be avoided.
They're trying to avoid the “groups” thing. Groups suck bc there will always be one or two teams beating the shit out of everyone. And there would not be much diversity in the format you've drawn.
I do get the skepticism, and it's definitely true that UEFA is doing this to make more money, any improvement to the viewers/clubs will be incidental. However, these changes sound pretty cool tbh. If it turns out this sucks, I hope there is a willingness to undo the changes in 5 years or so, but I'm hopeful that it will improve the Champions League's entertainment value.
why would they change if it sucks on a footballing perspective? This is purely a money move, this was certainly not done in consideration of the player's and their respective clubs because it means even more games which will mean more injuries and just general exhaustion which can lead to a diminishment in quality of football in the league
While it sounds good in practice as soon as they do a league draw there is going to be some shouting. Some dodgy teams always end up with a higher ranking/seeding than they should other strong teams end up with a lower ranking than they should, so somebody's 8 league games will be looking super soft while someone else will get Man City/PSG/Milan/Arsenal/Benfica... It'll be a group of death but only hitting one team and they're going to moan like hell :)
@@mattc3581the system is just not explained in the video. it will not be random but will be using a swiss system. this means that the teams at top will be playing against each other. so if 2 teams both have for example 3 wins they will be playing against each other and not a team with only 1 win
It sounds good, but I think this wall all in plan. Without away goals, the champions league feels like just another normal tournament. Champions league was different only because of the away goals and there are also many questions of that the winning team just doesn't face big teams sometimes. So, something like this might make sense in the future
@@rondamgemas8638 This is wrong. Schedules are decided ahead of time based on the clubs' UEFA coefficient. How a team is doing this year will have no impact on who they face, only how they did in previous years.
So I think I understand how it works, but it still feels so odd to have a "league table" where teams don't actually play all the others. How do they pick the random opponents for the teams? 🤔
Realistically, bribes and corruption.
Teams will be grouped
Teams can make a "donation" to UEFA, and get easier matches.
@@brianjakobsen2475 Pay to Win, just like in gaming 😂
If they use the actual swiss system. It should be like with the initial seeds 1 vs 19, 2 vs 20, ... , 18 vs 36. Then the teams that win face each other and the teams that lose face each other. You only face teams on the same scoreline as you. So after 5 games there should be something like 1 or 2 teams who won all 5 and 1 or 2 teams who lost all 5.
Not sure if they will have draws tho.
Also they could just make 1 vs 2 in the league stage to make more money.
People will lose interest with so many games
Definitely not
“Oh no too much football” - said literally no fan ever.
If it happens, it certainly won't be worse that it currently is. The current group stage is boring as hell.
@@lorz2385 the unspoken truth everyone wants to ignore just to yell about UEFA. this will create way more drama
I just watched a video about how the Premier League is broken, meaning since they have no restrictions on who can own the teams and how much money they spend on players, most of the top players in the world play on that league and now that you mentioned we could have so many Premier League teams, everything starts to make sense... They definitely need to start regulating that league, stuff is getting out of hand IMO.
Spending is regulated
it is regulated but la liga and bundesliga earn a third of what the prem makes on tv rights alone and team like barca and madrid got their own deals basiclly killing all the competition and their own league and now everyone is pointing at the premier league for doing whats right and not choosing the way of pure and utter greed like madrid and barca,let them burn out and die i am all here for it
Rugby's European Cup tried this format (more or less) and is slowly walking it back due to everyone hating it.
What didn’t people like about it?
the champions league was special because of its cup format... now that its gone, what will compensate for the thrill? dont think that a league will be close by any means
uefa doesn't care they just want more money
The Champions Cup and Champions League are supposed to be cup competitions, not leagues. When rugby tried it it just became a complicated mess with fans having no idea what was going on and it had no clear competition format. They've even managed to complicate what should be a simple group format that they've now gone back to by not having every team in each group play every other team in their group. Hopefully football fans have a better time understanding this new format and it doesn't kill the enjoyment. @@andrewbarley557
@@jamesconnor2499 thanks! That’s interesting
Would they change the squad sizes to account for the extra games?
Just more $ allowed to spend under ffp
The world collectively rubbing their head at MLS’s bizarre rules now that Messi is coming: 🤦♂️
UEFA: “Hold my beer”
Eh, their playoff is not as big as that. I mean, 2/3rd of the teams are going to basically qualify for a playoff, and the only incentive to do better beyond that is to get a bye to the Round of 16.
The most annoying part to me is, that this makes the tournament incredibly hard to follow. The neat thing about group stages, is that it divides the competition into easy to follow and fun to predict mini-tournaments. In a league like this, it's almost impossible for viewers to see possible battles form, to describe developments or to make accurate assessments of a team's performance.
Now, a certain amount of unpredictability sounds nice on paper, but what this actually means, is that there are going to be the same favorite every years, the digitalized draw will have very little effect on who actually advances, the chance of a big team getting knocked out will be significantly smaller than before and overall it will lead to a total lack of excitement in the league stage.
TV money really has killed football 😢
This was a great explainer. Thanks.
Best change imo is that teams from the UCL can't be relegated anymore to the EL and teams from the UEL can't get relegated to the UECL.
This way these two competitions will actually be interesting to watch in later stages instead of watching all the champions league rejects facing off against each other. Each competition exists in it's own ecosystem of clubs that have a realisitic chance to win the title and I really like that idea.
Those will be much more interesting to me than the UCL because I really enjoy watching "smaller" teams play
Agreed. The only thing I can’t get behind at all is the 2 teams with the highest “coefficients” making it who don’t qualify.
@@Cornpop69 Its only so that big clubs have security and know that they will play in the CL even if they fuck up. It was a pleaser after the Super League threads...
@@danieldrexel3875 oh I know, that’s why I hate it. It’s antithetical to what the champions league is supposed to be
No that makes it way worse.. This way it will be better to not qualify for champions league for smaller teams because they’ll never have a chance of winning it and since wins in UCL count the same in the coefficient as in the UEL AND UECL it’ll give an even bigger advantage to losers not good enough for UCL..
Well it’s kinda shite, it means clubs like Celtic and rangers will never play in the EL OR ECL
European Cup - Only Champions need apply
Champions League - Come join even if you finished fourth.
Because 4th in the Premier league is still a better team that 1st in the Polish League, I mean it makes complete sense
Finally dug into the relationship of Adam to FFT and am totally confused as to why he is not on the “Meet the Team” page on the website. Let’s get this brilliant man up there!!!
Is he still with WhatCulture?
Adam Clery is a natural communicator and i'm only subbed because of him tbf.
I wish we can go back to the original format where the best club in each nation gets to qualify.
Originally, it’s 16 but now it’s 32. Considering there are 54 European countries. 55 if you count Russia.
I wish we can go back to the original format.
One for the purists but never going to happen as you'll get 4-5 big teams and a load that really have no chance, not many big matches to sell TV rights for there. If you want lots of big matches then you need 3-4 from each of the top leagues so you have 16-20 top teams playing each other and you have big games every week.
You'd really prefer for example Olimpija and Urartu (31st and 32nd country champions) over for example Real and Arsenal?
@@Daisy_3011 Yes. But only because I don't like Real Madrid. Quite like Arsenal, but if their missing out means Real Madrid aren't there, it's a price worth paying.
More seriously (as I don't really mean that and think going back to the original format would likely destroy football as we know it, and force a completely new governance to be set up in a completely resuscitated sport), I think a better argument against going back to the original system is that in the world we currently inhabit, it would cause mass waves of teams going bankrupt and probably just one single club becoming dominant in every single league.
With the amount of money that TV rights and prize money etc. grant clubs for being in the premier competition, it would be impossible for all but the megalithic clubs (like Real Madrid and Man Utd) to budget their spending if getting said wealth was very, very unreliable. Even if you got it once, you couldn't use that wealth in a fiscally responsible manner unless you first built up a huge, largely insurmountable gap between you and your rivals in your country.
To demonstrate the kind of thing I mean, consider when big, big money first made its appearance in English football - the start of the Premier League. The main, if not only reason for Man Utd's success wasn't Ferguson, despite what some people claim. It was that they won the first season of the Premier League, and continued to win it. For rough a decade and a half they had no real rivals. The closest was Arsenal, who were operating on a comparative shoestring budget, and the reason for that was Man Utd were the first people to gain the incoming wealth, and they used it well enough to prevent anyone else getting it. They offered wages no other clubs could offer, and could match any transfer fee any other club might submit. Their dominance wasn't because they were akin to Guardiola's Barca, or the truly dominant AC Milan of the turn of the millennium. It was a very parochial dominance which was down to no other English club being able to compete. (Compare how poorly Man Utd did in the Champions League to clubs from other nations - there was barely a European Cup or Champions League final that didn't involve one of a number of Italian clubs, and Man Utd who were the only club for England that ever managed to did so rarely, winning just 2 Champions Leagues in Ferguson's entire tenure at the club, and made a couple more appearances in the final in later years after the Premier League was partially fixed). It was only when Abramovich appeared that Man Utd finally had a rival that could compete with them on money, and that's when the league turned from a 1 and a half team league into the league it is now where there are multiple clubs that can challenge both domestically and abroad. (Essentially, the Premier League now is what Serie A was in the 90s and early 2000s.)
The best case scenario of returning to the pure knockout system of league winners is that we would return to the Man Utd 90s era, where the league was a glorified Scottish Premier League. With one club having all the money, and the rest having to rely on Sugar Daddies and praying that FFP remains as pointless as it currently seems to be, judging by how Everton can get away with whatever they want it appears.
I suggest a compromise:
32 teams in 8 groups,
with the first 2 of the best 4 leagues in the UEFA ranking already placed in the tournament, and teams 3 and 4 from those leagues need to play a qualification.
Leagues 5-6 also have their 2 best teams already qualified, while 1 more team needs to play qualification.
Leagues 7-8 have 2 clubs safe in the UCL and none in the qualifiers.
Leagues 9-12 have 1 club in the competition and 1 in the qualifiers.
Leagues 13-16 have 1 club in the UCL and none in the qualifiers.
Every league below has 1 team starting in the qualifiers.
This way, the first half of the continent have their national champions granted in the UCL. And that would be a proper system for a *Champions* League.
it was easy back then as there was only 32 countries in Europe, but after the break up of CCCP, yugoslavia the czechoslovakia split, then andorra claiming to be a country, faroe islands, gibraltar, theres about 54 footballing countries, but still champions are champions there shouldve been a way to let the minnows play each other and qualify with the top 16, so easy, but its all armchair footy now all about money
Thank you for the very helpful breakdown!
This is exactly the video I was hoping to get soon. Excellent.
Great episode! Very comprehensive explanation with welcome humour. 😄
Great Video! I've got 2 questions to the draw you showed at about 6 minutes.
1. Why stands on left hand side (1/2) and on the right hand side (2/1). Ist not the winner of the league stage on the left hand side and the runner up on the right hand side?
2. I am not able to read the numbers of the kick off round. I guess in the green box on the left hand is (15/16) and in the white box next to the green box (23/24). Is it true?
Thankyou:)
Isn't this the WhatCulture guy? Amazing work
Presumably the knock on is that if you get the extra spots you get half the league in Europe with the two other competitions
The best teams will be scheduled to play the lowest ranked teams during the group stage which should mean less of a chance of the big teams missing out on the knockout stages.
But it allows more lower ranked teams to get to playoffs and KOs
@@boololo2575 From the 36 teams in the CL group stage 24 will progress, so there is a chance that the lowest rank teams will be in that 24. It is unlikely, but could happen, that the top ranked teams will miss out by not being one of those top 24 teams. The goal for the top teams is to finish in the top 8 and I think UEFA will weigh the fixtures so those teams have the best chance of achieving that goal
No there will be seeding! He even said it in the video. 4 groups of 9 teams. 2 games from every group in total 8. So if you are City you have to play to games with equal opponents then 2 games with lower opponents and so on.
Great video, it all makes a lot more sense now. Just one question regarding the 8 initial matches that teams play: Will they play the same opponents both home and away in this part of the tournament, so that if Newcastle play Barcelona, they’ll both get a chance to play each other at their own ground?
If that’s not the case, it’d be very strange - as some stadiums are far tougher to visit than others.
No, each team will play 8 entirely different opponents, and four of those matches will be home and the other four will be away.
Eh lets just wait for ea fc 25 and learn it from their.
@@ianskarborg2262 Do you really expect EA to have the proper tournament format in the first year that it's introduced? Remember how long it took them to allow 5 subs?
@@lukew6725we will see didn't they change the UEL and UECL to add those qualifying round for 2nd place UEL /UECL sides vs UCL 3rd or UEL 3rd placed teams and took out away goals rule. In FC25 there's two options they make the champions league, europa league and europa conference league stick 36 teams into a tournament split into 3 groups of 12 so the top 6 per group advance to the R16 or the top 2 advance in each group and the remaining 30 teams fight to be in the last 16 after that normal Knockout rules
@@lukew6725 the reason they didn't allow 5 subs is bc the Prem hadn't adopted that as a permanent change. I guess the devs could've had 5 subs for all leagues except the Prem, but im not a game coder so i don't know if that would be something difficult to incorporate
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" - Not UEFA
now its broke,hopefully people won t watch this bullshit of competition
I totally get the idea of the league system for the first 8 games as each game will be important to win. Especially if you're currently sitting just below the top eight to qualify or you're in that zone for the next 24 teams and there's a possibility of (a) you're in that 24 and there's a possibility of getting knocked out or (b) you're in the bottom 8 and there's a chance of getting into the top 24 places.
As for the KO stage. I still like the idea of a draw for each round. But there is a _"but"_ and it's below.
But _(I told you so!)_ as it stands, if you're in the last 16 now, you know who you could be playing in the 1/4 finals. And you'll also know the two teams you could meet in the semi finals. Plus you already know who you will _NOT_ be meeting unless you get into the final as they'll be in the other half of the draw.
Through all these changes which the players do not have say, The players suffer the most especially the ones who play for top teams because of the high amount of games played across the season including national team matches (Nations League! and Qualifiers) and also the new 32 team expanded Club World Cup which is coming in 2025, The potential for serious injuries grows higher even though they will get PAID very well.
Totally agree! However, this is one more reason why this format will make football more unfair: clubs will buy more players to have bigger squads in order to avoid injuries.
Having watched Swiss in esports for 5 years now, this format usually causes upsets, and a lot of fans will probably be very upset when favorites end up playing eachother in the first round of 16
so you want constant boring matches were the big teams get an easy ride
@@laoch5658 Hes just mentioning how the swiss system sometimes upsets fans in Esports because a few luck games here and there and the finals are a big flop out for streaming services, football clubs and for fans. Imagine if Barcelona and madrid on 16, then madrid loses on 8 etc and the finals are Luton against finnish HJK, Everyone was waiting for big finals and the two teams that are on the finals have 30,000 fans out of 800 million people who watches the tournament.
@@laoch5658don’t Tell me you prefer the new system?
"MONEY!".. love the no BS 👌😆
Is this being done to the Europa League and Conference League? Also what does this mean for the teams that win a domestic cup now? Where will they be put?
My main question is if the 8 matches in the group stage are going to be predetermined from the start or they will be chosen after each match, because in chess, in which many tournaments have the same Swiss model you dont know your next opponent until you have finished your game.
You will know all the league stage fixtures before playing any.
There is too much to organize to do it after each round.
It will simply be 2 teams from each pot
@@thesuomi8550 No, unless i missunderstood it but they said they will use the swiss system, so that teams that win 3 games for example will play teams that won 3 games to make it balanced.
@@joshspace99 I guess they didn't explain it properly then since there will be a seeding and a draw before the league stage to determine all the matches in advance
they will make 4 groups off 9 teams playing each other
So basically the UCL will adopt a Swiss drawing method in the league phase, similar to chess. Basically each round there is a new ranking and the top of the ranking plays the 2nd place team, 3rd plays 4th and so on. But once number 1 has played against the number 2 already then it will play number 3, 2 plays 4 and so on.
That's not how they are doing it. That would be awful enough, granted, but they are doing a modified Swiss method where all the fixtures will be known at the start of the 'league' (and I use that terms with all the scorn I can muster).
As a Liverpool fan I won’t have to worry about this format
brilliant video, my head is hurting, but the format is now clearer. Mate, you need your own show on Sky, you have it all, knowledge, enthusiasm, and presence.
This format is much better than the old one, just like the current one and future old one, was better than the previous one. Change is good
From what I understand for example in the league stage if you're Man City , you get to play two teams from the top 8 , so we can get some crazy games right from the beginning. Imagine them playing Barcelona and Bayern , then they will play two other teams from 8-16 places where they could play Real Madrid and Inter. So actually this format makes it harder even for the top teams to qualify . Some of them will definitely lose out in the league stage , but fortunately for them you get the second change as long as you are in the first 24.
It is gonna be super unfair if you play away or not, not to mention boring less impactful "group games or league games" cause 24 clubs qualifiy instead of 16...Also no difference winning the league finishing top 1 or 8th. Overall i think it is way worse and less entertaining. There will be ton of games with zero importance..
@@eymerich6872it will be 16 team qualified not 24. 1-8 would automatically make it into the round of 16. And then 9-24 would play 2 legged tie to make it into the round of 16.
let's not forget that if they are not immediately between the 8 best, they will have to play more games and will probably get tired while the 8 best are already qualified and waiting to play
@@aliffnaim9939
Great video bro broke it down well
Main problem is that people only have a certain amount of money they are willing to pay on watching football. Also you can only watch one game at a time. So not sure it will make that much more money. Diminishing returns.
Will this be the same for the Europa League and conference League?
This format will kill the underdogs, because the top 8 will be the same teams, and the play offs will be the rest of the good teams and the medium clubs of Europe, and probably they will catch the best teams on play offs
1:36 love hearing kilmarnock being mentioned as i’m a fan of them lol mon the killie!
Explain how the europa league and conference will work adam, will england still get 2 places and 1 in the conference or it reduces?
Who gets the Champions League and Europa League winner spot if those teams are already qualified through league positioning?
Nice even harder for small teams
I'm actually looking forward to the new format, but there should never be a scenario where 7 teams from one nation can qualify!
Works for viewers and UEFA, but too many games for the players
Oh please my United club played the most matches in history of the modern game and still missed out on 4 possible at Europa
Everyone else can play this many too the only ground you have to stand on is if they screw everyone over and make the WC at the same time again instead of during the summer when it's supposed to be
The old UCL format which had two group stages had more matches than this one
@@victorkreig6089 Nope, that record goes to Chelsea. ManU 66, Liverpool 67 & Chelsea 69.
@@burnbrae6948 what an unfortunate number
What year?
@@victorkreig6089 2912 (13) I think
A lot of possiblity to fix matchups by uefa in the big group and by the teams (like Spain do in national competitions)
This is the only video which explains it well
Concise and clear, good stuff.
Could you explain the coefficient system for the extra two spots in more detail?
Each team playing europe gets 2 points for each win, 1 for each draw (half in th qualifiers)+ some bonus points for stuff like reaching the CL group stage, add all the ppints together and divide by the number of teams of that league (8 for england for example).
This is the same system (over 5 years) for the league coefficients
Lovely explanation 💕
I’ve been waiting for this video
my favourite part of this video was the money segment, although I still don't get why they're doing this. Possibly for money
but that's just my best guess.
4:56 Yes. And the UEFA and the rich clubs did everything to make the group stage boring. By giving the big leagues more and more slots for the UCL and thus making it easier for the big clubs to qualify for it, while in the smaller leagues, nobody got the chance to do "economical planning".
I agree that’s why the champions league should be champions only you see Scottish teams like rangers qualify even tho they didn’t win the league or win Europa league they should not be able to qualify right but no even tge second place teams an Scottish gets a chance to qualify even tho their league is very weak
@@captainfalconmain6576 Yes, or even the fourth (!) from the English, Spanish, German and Italian league.
@@md-io4tblol yep
I was confused when the champions league format suddenly changed in my fm23 game but now I know why that happened
Brilliant summary of a crazy system
To me this fudge (and that's what it is of course) reworking of the UCL tournament always looked as though it was an overly complex solution to a relatively simple problem; how to placate the (financially driven) demands of the super clubs (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, AC Milano, Internazionale, Bayern Munchen, Man City etc.) whilst NOT appearing to do exactly that, ie. maintaining even a vague impression of it being a solely merit based sporting competition?
My idea to solve this conundrum, which I'd already worked out back in the 1990s, was to have one more pre-qualifying round (before the league groups stage), resulting in a smaller number of qualifiers making up the final number of 32 teams contesting the group stages but then instead of having 8 groups of 4 teams, change this to 4 groups of 8 teams, with only the top team from each of these four groups advancing to the finals, which would be organised on a festival tournament basis, ie. two semi-finals, a 3rd/4th play-off for the semi-final losers and a grand final, all held in the same city over a six day period.
If you work out how many games this would give the 32 teams qualifying for the league stages, in comparison to the current scenario, it's not that different. A team going all the way to the final festival tournament week would have to play 14 league games, plus two games in the final six day festival tournament, so 16 in total. Under the current (up to end of 23-24 season) set-up, a team progressing all the way to the final plays 6 league stage games, plus 6 knock-out games and then a final, so 13 games in total.
In my idea for a revamped UCL competition, the so called super clubs are all guaranteed more games overall (a minimum of 14 league fixtures) and many of those games will be competitive against similarly strong clubs (each league of 8 teams would likely contain at least 3 or 4 capable of finishing top and qualification for the final tournament), not just teams making up the numbers from the much smaller less competitive domestic leagues; this outcome resulting from the extra pre-qualification round mentioned earlier.
The four game final festival tournament outlined could be a real showcase event for UEFA to broadcast globally. There would of course have to be some reward for the team winning the third/fourth play -off game in order to incentivise them and make it a sporting spectacle rather than simply a consolation prize.
My idea for a UCL revamp seems much simpler (to me at least) whilst still providing many of the numerous and complex goals required?
the third/fourth playoff win could get a money pot. Uefa will be making so much more money out of this format it's ridiculous. But they are greedy scum so you know they wouldn't do it.
I like your idea very much though you put a lot of thought into it
Didn’t know Napoli changed his name to Parthanope
This helped sooooooo much
It was named the champions league (which was more proper than "european cup" but less than "European champions cup") for a reason.. It was to be contested between champions of domestic leagues. Back then it was fantastic. Even the Uefa cup winners cup was great. All the clubs participating in european tournaments had to have won some domestic title. That was fantastic for the sport but the clubs from the richest leagues (countries) didnt like it. They wanted guaranteed spots (and income) regardless of their performance. But most of all what they really wanted was to lessen the chance that a "lower tier" club could eliminate them from the tournament or "worse" win the title.
Thats why it changed from a knock out format to group stages, thats why "uefa coefficients" where introduced. thats why the "market pool" was introduced. To guarantee the dominance of the rich clubs/leagues (and the income). The same reason is why they introduced the "financial fair play".. They didnt want a super-rich man buying a cheap team from France or Sweden, buying the most expensive players and challenging for the european title... It is supposed to be for a closed club of.. clubs.
All these changes were introduced to make sure the poor leagues stay out of it as much as possible. Its no coincidence that before the change you had teams like Red Star Belgrade, Steaua Bucuresti and Celtic winning the title which has not happened since the change... Now not even Porto, Benfica, Ajax have any chance for the title. And its getting worse, Italian teams cant make it, French teams cant make it... German teams are also starting to have problems. It became a contest exclusively for a small group of teams from England and Spain and that became its downfall. Its no longer exciting. So they decided to make it even worse..
Those changes where the reason that footballer transfer fees and wages became so over the top that even super-rich teams now face financial difficulties. It started with the guaranteed participation and income those teams where granted from UEFA.
Not all changes were bad. The (old format now) group stage gave more games to watch for fans of weaker leagues (even though it made advancing to knock outs harder). Plus, you want to have top teams from the top leagues in the tournament even if they didnt win a title BUT... only the champion teams from the top 10 leagues should have guaranteed participation. All other champion clubs +2 more clubs from the top 3 leagues and +1 from leagues 4 to 6 should have to earn their spot through play offs (at least 1 round) WITHOUT favorable "coefficient" draws or other favorable conditions.
The other thing which no rich league would accept of course would be to distribute the market pool share for every match based on match viewership and split that equally between clubs if they draw and 60-40 (or 70/30) to the winning side regardless of domestic market value. That would mean that when/if Barcelona or Man. City lose against a Serbian or Greek club or whatever the winning team will have a huge boost in their income but even if they lose they will still have a good boost to help them get more competitive in the future. It would also eliminate matches that top teams come up indifferent because they would risk losing serious income if they did.
What they are introducing with the new format will make the whole tournament boring as the same clubs will face each other forever and will share the title between them. It will also launch transfer fees and wages to even more ridiculous heights and the rich clubs will still be in debt and ask for more and more money.
this format would not last long 😂😂
Maybe, increase dramatically the deference between 15nth and 16nth place. May need to fixed the qualication system
it’s so insane how this will bring EVEN MORE money to the best teams
so the first league is seeded and the fixtures random...does that mean in theory u could play the 3 or 4 other teams from ur own country??
I kind of like it, I kind of don't. On one hand I like the idea of teams having a reason to fight until the end, on the other hand, it's going to create even more inequality and the same teams will win over and over again, making the sport too predictable. Also, there's a problem with... everyone not playing against everyone. That's a problem right there, because then it's not fair for someone to only have to face weaker teams, while someone has to play against top teams. At this point, it's just a covert SuperLeague meant to favour the high and mighty.
It's not that random who you play, teams are segmented
This is my first time watching the channel, and I wasn’t expecting Adam from what culture on here 😂
If those 5 prem teams get CL, will 6 and 7th get europa League and 8th Conference league, or will Just 6th get europa and 7th Conference?
So top 24 go to champions League Knockouts...
What placements go into the Europa Knockouts?
What placements miss out completely?
Being honest this new format would be a win/win/win/win for everyone.
Fans get more entertainment- watching more games of their clubs or other followed clubs
Uefa gets more money (they wanted this)
Football players get more money and this can be applied to their contracts before signing with ucl “guaranteed” clubs. Only negative is playing more games or if they are injured
Leagues- have more potential for more viewership or other weaker teams to make their players shine more and shine and move in more bigger clubs meaning they get more money from selling players and invest that into their goals. Growing the league and clubs and having a spot in the top 5 leagues.
Yeah except it's defo not a win for players. They are already playing many matches and their health and injuries are disregarded. This will bring even more matches to a tights schedule and teams will be riddled with injuries
Right now....we have the 3rd place finish in the UCL groups go onto the R-32 europa , how will it pan out considering this format?
I don’t think champions league teams dropped to the europa league anymore
Can’t wait for that Barcelona - Shamrock Rovers fixture
It seems as if they actually aren't using the true "Swiss" system which was originally used in chess and now in bridge. In those cases, in a multi-round tournament, you don't know your opponents for the next round until the previous round is finished, as the pairings are based on points scored so far. But that would mean nobody had any advance notice of fixtures for booking hotels and flights. So I'm assuming it is actually going to be the pool system as described by @MoMPickMeUp... in one of the threads, which does allow forward planning. Four pools as at present based on past performance, you play 2 from each pool randomly chosen. So you get 8 different opponents in the early stages instead of 3 played twice. Probably less chance of being drawn in a "group of death" though you could still be unlucky with opponents. Presumably you play one opponent from each pool at home and the other away. That actually sounds quite a reasonable system. Good job they've got a computer to work out the pairings - for the first round at least, I assume people picking balls out of a tombola will be a thing of the past.
Discussions are ongoing that starting in 2027, the 3 european competitions will merge to become one divided into 3 divisions, with promotions and relegations similar to the domestic leagues.
Tbf when you actual sit and look at the format it is actually a reasonably decent idea and a lot of young fans will understand it as its pretty common format in e-sports. There should be more match ups between bigger teams, pretty much every game should have something at stake and the additional place for your countries teams if they do well in Europe will encourage some national interest/pride even from fans outside of those clubs, for example this year Liverpool fans maybe having to cheer on Man City & West Ham in Europe in order for 5th to go into the UCL.
It’s sad tho that the 5th of the prem might actually be able to qualify for the UCl.
Thanks for explaining the format. UEFA could've simply things by keeping the current group stage and have the group winners receiving byes while the 2nd and 3rd-placed teams advancing to a play-in round. It could adopt the World Cup format, something like 2A v 3B, 2C v 3D, 2E v 3F, 2G v 3H, and likewise for the other 2nd and 3rd seeds. The group winners will play the play-in round winners for the last 16, then QF, SF, and final. But whatever gives them more $ and makes them happy I guess.
Forget about giant killings which we all love. That'll be a thing of the past, in other words, this format will heavily favour top teams, which will make it boring as hell. Watch the viewership take a dive. I only hope the same doesnt happen to the FA cup or other domestic cups. Theres always a giant killing in FA cup, every season, it's really exciting to see those smaller teams make it through.
Guessing everyone’s UCL’s start from 0 then since it’s being rebranded
The used team allocation table wasn't fully correct, but good vid for te rest
I think there is one big misconception in the video. Two additional places are not for highest ranking teams outside of qualified, but for two leagues who has most points from last season and for highest-placed teams that haven’t already qualified from them. in other words if for example Chelsea would finish 6th next season and England has one of two highest point from this season European competitions, they would not get a place (even when they are third in club coefficient), but the fifth from PL would be earned
If you finished 1st now you can't draw against another team that is 1st so they do have seeded teams
Still haven't seen anyone clearly explain how the initial stage of games will work/ how the draw will take place. Is it pre-determined before the draw or is a new draw ahead of each match round?
It's predetermined.
Is this the format for the Europa and conference leagues? Does the winner of the Europa league qualify for the champions league?
Cant wait for this!
Will this be the same format in the Europa League and Conference League?
Yes
What you may spoil now is, since the risk of going out has been diminished, and if the quality is dipping, in the eyes of the fans, may change their perception of their domestic league (at least for the top for leagues) to be more prestigious. In the end, it’s the fans who holds the power, so let’s see how the cookie crumbles.
That year panini sticker album is gonna be huge
I actually like this system tbh. The asymmetrical "league" schedule and the seeded knockout bracket is very American, but I think it will be interesting. I don't think that more than 6 preliminary games are necessary, but it will be interesting seeing 8 unique European clubs before the knockouts.
This increases the chance of Swindon qualifying for the champ league
RIP 🪦 Real Champions League you’ll be truly missed 😢 let’s enjoy you for one final season!
The new format has that convoluted NFL timetabe feeling for some reason... And they finally emphasize on the "league" In Champions League
The best way to understand is to play FM23, and go a couple of seasons in. I’m assuming FM has it spot on in this case
so what about the europa and conference league, is it going to follow the same format?
Yes I feel like that’s obviously
It’s good to freshen things up every now and then. The league stage could be quite unpredictable.
Not really, the entire point of it is to make the knockout participants more predictable so you don't get upsets and end up "stuck" with unmarketable clubs making deep runs while big names exit early.
Simply put :
- the bigger clubs are better on average
- which means the more games are played, the more consistent they can be
- smaller clubs usually lack the bench and depth to be competitive in their domestic leagues AND national cup AND european tournament
- they can cause upsets when there are few games to be played but will struggle to remain consistent against stronger opposition
All the above mean that the first stage HEAVILY favours the biggest club and does so by design. By giving more games as a barrier to entry to the knockout, clubs that have a competitive A team and a competitive B team if not a competitive C team will have a huge advantage against clubs that will need to chose what competition to focus on.
It's all here to prevent embarrassing first round exits (think ManU in 20-21 in or Barca in the last two editions) not just because they are embarrassing but because far more people would tune in to watch United play in the knockouts than they would Union Berlin.
UEFA is taking a page out of the american sports playbook : the more games you play, the less each game matters and the more you give an advantage to dominant teams. Especially in football where low scorelines can always result in last minute ties or upsets.
tl;dr : this is exciting news if you're a Barca supporter and are tired of first round exits :^)
@@popezosimusthethird269i mean two thirds of the worst teams are guaranteed a knockout stage to advance to round of 16, surely that would make more upsets by smaller teams while also keeping the absolute top in it?
@@popezosimusthethird269This NBA playoffs Miami Heat was 8th seed and made it to the final. This was one of the most exciting playoffs in years.
@@VaoDxArchAngel so what
you are quite gullible
If you Sporting Clube de Portugal in your group its always until the last minute of the last game to know if we are through or not hahaha
Is anything changing with Europa and Europa Conference
If you are gonna go for a leauge style than go for it why the weird 9th vs 24th senario how is that fair?
How are the other 2 additional spots given out, I dont think you mentioned it?
Historical success.