The New UEFA Champion’s League

Back in 2023, the Union of European Football Associations announced a major shake up to Europe’s top club competition. The Champion’s League had been running the same format since the 2000 season. Since then, there have been big changes across the sporting world, specifically potential revenue generation. UEFA knew the demand was there for more football, and they are never one’s to shy away from more money.

So for the 2024/25 campaign, the tournament went through an overhaul to not only include more teams/games, but to have a completely different format. In the 23 previous years it was a group competition. 32 teams were split into groups of 4. You would play each team both home and away, meaning you were guaranteed 6 group stage games in total. Top 2 teams from each group would advance to the next round, which became a two match knockout series. The teams would continue to be cut in half until you reach the final 2. Now though, the format is similar to a domestic league table. There are now 36 teams in total, and each team gets to play 8 randomly drawn games. 4 home and 4 away, but with no repeats. This format is supposed to offer smaller teams, a bit more chance to pick up points versus more similarly ranked teams. After each team plays its 8 “league” matches, the top 24 move on to a home and away knockout stage which will continue until the final 2. It is all a bit confusing, but is it working?

Well, currently we are halfway through the 8 “league” matches and we have seen some positive changes. UEFA’s goal of helping smaller clubs play more evenly matched games, has so far happened. Clubs such as Sporting CP from Portugal, Brest from France, and Celtic from Scotland are having great campaigns and are at the moment above much bigger teams. Surprisingly some of Europe’s juggernauts are struggling at the current time. Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, and PSG are all much lower in the table than expected. With 4 games still to play for each club, there is plenty of time for them to win enough points to climb the table and comfortably advance. For the smaller teams though, the prospect of getting through to the knockout stage will not only excite their fans, but the club’s bank accounts as well. There is so much money at stake that these teams will be desperate to advance.

Only time will tell how this first season in UEFA’s new Champion’s League will go. But so far there are positive signs. For a fan, having more games is never a bad thing.

Picture By: Liam Peace

Comments