UEFA Change Champions League Format

[bluesfan94]

I watch every Arsenal match I can regardless of who they're playing.

 

[HajdukSplit]

It has been made official and UEFA has changed some other things as well, so overview of the new Champions League format starting 2018 and lasting until at least 2021...

- The top four leagues in the UEFA coefficients (ESP, GER, ENG, ITA) will be guaranteed four spots in the group stage, no longer will teams from these leagues have to qualify (example: 4th place in Premier League will automatically qualify)

- Club coefficients will be focused more on individual club results and naturally teams with a higher coefficient will be benefited more financially

The new club coefficient will no longer include a 20% contribution of the respective national association coefficient in order to avoid further unfair advantage for clubs of top-ranked associations and penalisation of clubs with good individual performances but a weak association coefficient.

Meanwhile, the club coefficient used for financial distribution purposes will cover the last ten years and will include bonus points for previous titles to reflect the longer-term contribution of clubs to the competition brand and success. Bonus points for trophies won will be allocated as follows

- Two separate kickoffs on each matchday like the EL; 2 matches starting 19:00 CET and 6 matches starting 21:05 CET

- Teams eliminated from early CL qualifying rounds will have a chance to drop down to the EL qualifying, probably won't make much of a difference but in the past if you lost in the early rounds that was it, your Euro season was done in July basically

Outside of the CL changes other things which came out of the UEFA executive committee: Lyon will host the 2018 EL final (Kiev was already named hosts of 2018 CL final), bids for Euro 2024 are due in March 2017, will go back to traditional hosts unlike 2020, UEFA president Ceferin is against expansion of the World Cup

 

[Halladay]

Id honestly like them to change the format up. Like they used to have two group stages, I could go with that again.

 

[Evilo]

Incredible this is going through.
Absolutely horrible for the game.

 

[Theokritos]

Incredible this is going through.
Absolutely horrible for the game.

Yes, if that's the direction they want to take then they might as well make it a European League with promotion and relegation already, that would be better and more honest.

 

[Theokritos]

UEFA president Ceferin is against expansion of the World Cup

At least one announcement I like.

 

[HajdukSplit]

At least one announcement I like.

I'm sure if UEFA get like 18-20 spots their time will change

But everything I read UEFA and CONMEBOL will see the least increase, naturally this expansion is to appease the huge voting blocs in Asia and Africa who stand to most benefit. Also, it's clear the top Euro clubs aren't thrilled with international football and last thing they want is more games to the schedule

 

[Pouchkine]

The "Champions League" getting even more boring and predictable...

 

[hatterson]

- Teams eliminated from early CL qualifying rounds will have a chance to drop down to the EL qualifying, probably won't make much of a difference but in the past if you lost in the early rounds that was it, your Euro season was done in July basically

I suppose this is a decent change. Gives the lower ranked associations (17-54) a chance to extend their European seasons longer. For some of those teams, especially the lowest ranked associations, it's better to be a runner up than to win the league in terms of European competition for the next year.

It's also a heck of a lot better (imo) than giving the R16 CL losers a pass into the Europa League knockout stage.

 

[HajdukSplit]

With most tournaments expanding the number of teams involved, the new UEFA president Ceferin stated that the ECA wanted to reduce the # of CL clubs to 24, with the majority being from ENG/ESP/GER/ITA/FRA and even wild cards. They eventually settled on the top four leagues getting four automatic spots and keeping the tournament at 32 teams