Europe's football leagues set to meet to discuss plans for overhaul of UEFA Champions League
ByReuters
Published 04/02/2021 at 18:48 GMT
European football's governing body is looking into the prospect of revamping the group stage of its flagship competition. The plan would see the eight groups of four replaced with a table and each team play 10 games. It would result in more games, but the domestic leagues have made it clear that they will not accept European football at weekends
Manuel Neuer, captain of FC Bayern Munich lifts the UEFA Champions League Trophy following his team's victory in the UEFA Champions League Final match between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich at Estadio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica on August 23, 2020 in
Image credit: Getty Images
Europe's leading leagues will hold an online meeting on Friday to discuss UEFA's plans to change the Champions League format, with a major reshaping of the group stage on the agenda.
UEFA has been consulting with clubs and leagues about how to liven up the group stage and a switch to a new format with more games is the preferred option of European football's governing body.
The discussions have focused on scrapping the round-robin stage, where there are currently eight groups of four clubs with each team playing three opponents at home and away.
That format often results in 'dead rubbers' with the top teams qualifying with a game or two to spare.
UEFA is considering replacing it with a format in which the 32 clubs would play 10 different opponents and qualification would come from one league table.
That would allow for more games and - UEFA hopes - more games that matter, generating higher revenues and greater fan interest.
The plan, dubbed the "Swiss model", has yet to meet any major resistance and was backed by European Club Association chief Andrea Agnelli, the president of Juventus, although he indicated he may push for a broader expansion.
I think it is a great system because it is scalable. The number of games you play in the early stages can be a non pre-determined number of games."
The leagues will be keen to ensure that any expansion of European club competitions does not encroach on domestic football and have been clear they will not accept weekend Champions League fixtures.
The European Leagues organisation also wants to see an increase in "solidarity payments" from European competition revenue to domestic football and a guarantee that qualification to competitions will continue to be based on domestic league position.
While there appears to be a broad consensus about changes to the format of the tournament, UEFA is likely to face some tricky negotiations about the financial distribution mechanism from their competitions, sources say.
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