[ad_1]
A new era in European club football will begin on Thursday when the draw takes place in Monaco for an expanded UEFA Champions League featuring a radically changed format. European football’s governing body is selling what it describes as “an exciting new future” for the sport on the continent in which more teams will play more matches, and more prize money will be on offer. UEFA needs to spread the word about the new format, because there is a risk – at least initially – that fans will find it confusing compared to the old model.
For the past 21 years, the Champions League has had a group stage in which the 32 clubs are divided into eight groups of four, each playing six games. The top two clubs in each group qualify for the knockout stage.
The new version will have 36 clubs and each club will play eight matches, but all the teams will not be divided into groups but in one huge league.
The clubs will still be divided into four seeded pots of nine teams, with each participant given two opponents from each pot.
The top eight teams in the final ranking advance to the last 16, while the next 16 teams advance to an intermediate play-off round and the remaining teams are eliminated.
The new format was introduced against the backdrop of Europe’s biggest clubs threatening to break away and form their own Super League.
But UEFA also hopes the format could be a solution to the problem of competitive imbalance in the game, which was making the group stage more predictable.
UEFA says, “The new format will provide a better competitive balance between all teams, with each team having the possibility to play opponents of a similar competitive level during the league phase.”
financial rewards
These changes will certainly not allay concerns that too much football is being played and that its quality is suffering as a result.
The increased demands on players and the resulting lack of rest were cited as the reason for several Euro 2024 matches proving disappointing.
The new Champions League season will culminate with the first expanded edition of FIFA’s Club World Cup, with the group stage featuring a total of 144 games, up from 96 previously.
However, the financial rewards are greater, with UEFA’s total prize money for the Champions League increasing by almost 25 percent to about 2.5 billion euros ($2.79 billion).
The winners of the competition could pocket more than 86 million euros in prize money alone, not including a 700,000 euro bonus for each point earned in the league stage or television revenue.
Real Madrid were the winners last season, lifting the trophy for the sixth time in the last 11 years.
Addition of klian mbappe This victory for his team means they will hope to go on again, and emerge victorious in next year’s final in Munich on May 31.
new faces
This season’s Champions League will feature new entrants such as Spain’s Girona, while Italy’s Bologna will compete in Europe’s elite club competition for the first time in 60 years.
France’s Brest team had never previously qualified for a European competition but are taking part after finishing third in Ligue 1 last season – taking advantage of an extra spot given to France as the fifth-placed league in Europe.
As for the other additional places, one spot will go to the national champion that emerges from the qualifying round, while Italy and Germany will get one additional team each based on the performance of their clubs in Europe in the previous season.
UEFA said the draw would be a “hybrid” affair, with balls being drawn manually and using software, as they estimated it would take more than three hours to do it all by hand.
The Europa League and Conference League, whose draws will take place on Friday, will also now feature 36 teams, although clubs will only play six matches in the league stage.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Topics mentioned in this article
[ad_2]
Source link