Since this season, the Champions League has been moulting, leaving the history format of the group phases for a Swiss round, a championship or 36 teams found themselves and each had eight games to define a classification as well as twenty-four qualified for the final phase. This format has made a lot of talk and divided before the start of the season, but smiled at several more modest clubs which rarely see the final stages, such as the Brestois, Bruges or Celtic Glasgow stadium. However, it could already be revised next season, following the complaints of certain clubs, according to Bild. Three points are thus targeted as priorities by UEFA.
The first directly concerns the organization of the final phase of the Champions League. Indeed, Arsenal complained to the UEFA that he played exclusively his backwards outside, while the Gunners finished in third place in the Swiss round, with six victories, a draw and a defeat. The men of Mikel Arteta did not obtain the advantage of the field against Real Madrid (11th in the Swiss round) in the quarterfinals, or even against Paris Saint-Germain (16th in the Swiss Round) in the semi-finals. One of the proposed solutions could be to automatically make the advantage of the field for the team that finished the best classified to the final, as is the case for the European Rugby Cup.
The end of the extension?
The second point mentioned by Aleksander Ceferin and UEFA will make him talk a lot. Indeed, European football bodies plan to send the matches that end directly on penalties to lighten the playing time of players in a full season, in a context of general concern about the increase in injuries. Thus, UEFA would remove the extension, and stands on the model of many European national competitions such as the French Cup in France, or the EFL Cup, the English League Cup.
With the withdrawal of the rule of goal outside, there are a few seasons of this, the abolition of the extension would exponentially multiply the number of meetings ending on a penalty shootout. It would therefore be the end of a fairly legendary era of goals in overtime, like those of Real Madrid during its epic in 2022. This season, five return games decided on penalties, three in qualifications and two during the main phase: face to face between Paris and Liverpool, as well as the Madrid derby between Real and Atlético, both in the eighth final.
More clashes between French clubs in dams
Finally, the third and last change was the one that had a lot of players and coaches talk after the Swiss round phase: clashes between clubs of the same country. “We hope Benfica, PSG, we know them, we play them enough in Ligue 1. Too bad. You have undermined my morale. It would be a shame to fall against Paris anyway “had declared the middle of Brest Pierre Lees-Melou at the microphone of Canal+ Before the drawing of the dams. In addition to PSG-Brest, the competition has seen AtlĂ©tico and Real, as well as Leverkusen and Bayern Munich, compete.
UEFA believes that these types of meetings are not as attractive for supporters and broadcasters, and therefore plans to reapplicate its old protection rules, preventing clubs from competing before the quarter -finals. A real headache in view of the already very restrictive draws of the dam phase, which limits each team to two potential opponents depending on the classification of the Swiss round. The three developments in the regulation should be discussed in Munich on May 30, during a meeting of the Club Competitions Committee.
