Continental shift: UCL enters a new era

MONACO — A new era in European club soccer begins on Thursday when the draw takes place in Monaco for an expanded UEFA Champions League with a radically changed format.

European soccer's governing body is selling what it describes as "a thrilling new future" for the game on the continent, with more teams playing more matches, and more prize money on offer.

UEFA needs to generate hype around the new format, because there is a risk — in the beginning at least — that fans will find it confusing compared to the old model.

For the last 21 years, the Champions League has consisted of a group stage in which 32 clubs were split into eight groups of four, each playing six games. The top two in each group qualified for the knockout phase.

The new version will feature 36 clubs with everyone playing eight matches, but all the teams are pooled together into one giant league rather than split into groups.

Clubs will still be separated into four seeded pots of nine teams, with every participant facing two opponents from each pot.

The top eight in the final ranking go through to the last 16, while the next 16 sides advance to an intermediate play-off round and the remaining teams go out.

The new format was introduced against the backdrop of the threat by Europe's biggest clubs to break away and form their own Super League.

But UEFA is also hoping the format can be a solution to the problem of competitive imbalance in the sport that was making the group stage more predictable.

According to UEFA, the new format will introduce "a better competitive balance between all the teams, with the possibility for each team to play opponents of a similar competitive level throughout the league phase".

Financial rewards

What the changes will certainly not address are concerns about too much soccer being played and the resulting impact on quality.

The increasing demands on players, and the lack of rest, were cited as reasons why many matches at Euro 2024 proved to be disappointing.

The new Champions League, in a season which is also set to finish with the first expanded version of FIFA's Club World Cup, will feature a total of 144 games in the group stage, up from 96 before.

The financial rewards are greater, however, with UEFA's total prize pot for the Champions League rising by about 25 percent to almost 2.5 billion euros ($2.79 billion).

The winner of the competition can pocket over 86 million euros in prize money alone, not including bonuses of 700,000 euros for every point gained in the league phase or income from television rights.

Real Madrid was the winner last season, raising the trophy for the sixth time in the last 11 years.

The addition of Kylian Mbappe to its squad means it will hope to go all the way again, and emerge victorious in the final in Munich on May 31, next year.

Fresh faces

This season's Champions League will include newcomers such as Girona from Spain, while Bologna of Italy takes part in Europe's elite club competition for the first time in 60 years.

Brest of France had never qualified for any European competition before, but now takes part after finishing third in Ligue 1 last season — taking advantage of the extra place handed to France as the fifth-ranked league in Europe.

As for the other additional places, one goes to a national champion who will emerge from the qualifying rounds, while Italy and Germany get an extra team each because of the performances of their clubs in Europe last season.

UEFA said the draw itself will be a "hybrid" affair, between the manual drawing of balls and the use of computer software, having calculated that doing it all by hand would take more than three hours and require 900 balls.

The Europa League and Conference League, the draws for which will both take place on Friday, will now also feature 36 teams, although clubs will only play six matches each in the league phase of the latter competition.

AFP