UEFA's executive committee are expected to approve a reform to the Champions League next Wednesday.

The new format will follow the 'Swiss model' and see the competition expanded to 36 teams.

Tthere is to be an increase from 6 to 10 guaranteed games in the new format, which will be introduced post-2024.

What is the Swiss model?
It is a new format for the Champions League after this current cycle of the competition, which ends in 2024.

The 32-team group stage would be eliminated. Instead, there would be a 36-team ‘Swiss model’ league, in which each club will play 10 games: five at home, five away.

The fixtures will be based on seedings and the teams will be ranked from one to 36.

The top eight will advance automatically to a 16-team knockout round, and the next 16 teams will go into a play-off round to decide those final eight slots.

Who would the extra four places go to?
The UEFA proposal is to give one of the four new slots to the team that finishes fourth in the fifth-strongest league, which is currently France but Portugal is closing in.

That would mean the 'Big Five' leagues would all have four guaranteed places in the Champions League each.

European football's governing body is proposing to award the three other slots on the basis of historic performance in European competitions over the previous five seasons. This would provide a safety net for teams with strong European pedigrees that have relatively poor domestic seasons.

For example, one or more of the Premier League's 'Big Six' could finish in one of the Europa or Europa Conference League positions — fifth to seventh — and be promoted to the Champions League.

The European Leagues, which represents 36 domestic leagues in 30 countries, believes this is unfair and would distort domestic and European competitions.

They want those three extra slots to go to the domestic champions of leagues that currently have to come through the qualifying rounds.

This could mean the champions of countries such as Denmark, Scotland and Switzerland no longer have to play a tricky qualifying round to get to the Champions League.

Is there anything else I need to know?
Yes. The European Leagues are concerned 10 guaranteed games is too many and that four extra exclusive mid-week matchdays would make life very difficult for domestic leagues and cups.

Not a fan.. will kill the tournament for me and corrupt Uefa will make more money and players will play on poor pitches and get injured more..

What a load of sh*t, anything to make a few quid more for the top clubs.

Nobody wants this, but they will push through with it anyway. They seem determined to ruin football for more money.

Yeah I’m not a fan. Why fix what isn’t broken?

Smh if we generally believe that the proposed changes were for the benefit of the competition and by virtue the competitive nature of European football I like many others could get behind this. But, all I see is them looking to make more money of the UCL.

More games = more televised revenue blah blah blah. It almost sounds like a double elim tourny, if the best teams fail to qualify into the knock out rounds don't worry you'll get another shot. If you fail to finish in your countries top 4 don't worry you'll get another shot. To me it seems like there is definitely an agenda that favours the 'historically big' teams.

I've always liked the top 4 being the determining factor for who qualifies for ucl it adds an extra competitiveness to the league aside from 1st place. Now certain teams can almost cruise through if they know they can't win the league assuming their UEFA coefficient is high. 

Oh well on the bright side at least we get to watch our team play more games against 'top' European teams.

I have a better idea, the top leagues should just join forces and scrap uefa,. then do the same to fifa. imagine the amount of money hemorrhaging out of the game through those corrupt greedy bastards.

Just a cashgrab. After covid, the schedule is packed enough as it is for the players. If this goes through, the big teams will manage but the smaller ones will be decimated by injuries

If you can't finish in the top 4 in a season you dont deserve to be in the CL, simple! Look at the scouse bastards this year had a really awful season and it looks if they have to go through another complete re build over the next few seasons, a completely new front line, new manager, the midfield isnt up to much and their defence is shocking (ok the defence has had alot of injuries but who's to say people like pony tail van dyke will come back the same). They haven't done to shabby in the CL historically but should they be in it next season? Will they be competitive? Would they even get out the group stages? This proposal is a farce it is only to appease the teams that wanted to make their own super league. UEFA knows how much money they would lose if that happened and they are trying to stop it by saying big teams are practically guaranteed a spot every year and f**k the little teams.

One more nail in the coffin of the game.

One more factor driving me away from "elite" football.

It is funny that when it is being proposed, Utd, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Barcelona are all struggling.

I like the idea of a meritocracy yet the big boys won't if they invest big and it does not pay off then they might lose a lot of money if they fail to qualify.

Furthermore this situation might have been made worse by FFP as teams cannot buy up all the talent so if they mess up badly in one season it can now be very costly as those players sell-on  value will drop.

 

 

Meh!

 

Not a big fan of the competition anyway.  Call me crazy, but I get more excited over the FA Cup.  Obviously the Champions League is a better trophy to win, I just very rarely enjoy the group stage games.  Wish it were straight knock out, no two legs either, could be very nervy on the night!  I'm probably alone in my feelings, but still a bit bitter over the Barcelona game back in 2009, that was a fix.

Edited April 1, 20215 yr by Eight Times

On 30/03/2021 at 10:07, dansubrosa said:

Yeah I’m not a fan. Why fix what isn’t broken?

I think there are people who argue it is broken in a fundamental way. Is it really the CHAMPIONS LEAGUE?  They've got it right including more spots for other leagues but they should just keep the format instead of also including an extra 5 teams that will inevitably be from the 'big' leagues. I would love to see the format stay the same and just include more CHAMPIONS instead of teams that finished 4th in Spain or England. 

Money is money though so I'm not surprised to seem them trying to milk every cent they can. 

I like the format as it is.

UEFA are a pack of greedy c**ts.