UEFA never stops phosphorizing on its new Champions League. The format that will come into effect from the start of the 2024 school year was presented with great fanfare exactly a year ago. It could undergo new developments, in particular with regard to the last four.
The outline of the project remains intact. 36 clubs will now participate in the C1, instead of 32, while the group system is also abolished in favor of a single championship without a round trip. But it is from there that things get complicated (even more) around this reform which aims to multiply meetings and therefore income from TV rights.
The distribution of these confrontations will be made according to the UEFA coefficient. In summary, the nine seeds will challenge members of the other three pots according to a ranking established from the performances of the last five years. A member of hat 1 will face two members of his group, three members of hat 2, three members of 3, and two of 4.
A “Final Four” more and more in tune with the times
In this system, it is the number of days that could change in the coming days. According to information from L’Equipe, the European body is reluctant to go to eight games each, against ten in the initial version – and six currently. The English are campaigning for this drop in order to lighten their schedule a little, between a Premier League at 20 and two national cups. Unsurprisingly, the ECA, the organization headed by Nasser Al-Khelaïfi and which represents the interests of the clubs, is reluctant.
The other big question mark concerns the organization of the last four. Instead of round-trip duels, UEFA and ECA are seriously considering setting up a “Final Four” for a week on the same site. The experiment carried out in Lisbon in the summer of 2020, under the constraint of Covid-19, was appreciated. This implies fewer retransmissions but promised on paper more suspense and spectacle. To compensate for these losses, the idea of an inauguration ceremony at the start of the season, on the model of the Superbowl, was put forward by the president of PSG.
More than two free passes for the giants?
In addition, UEFA could finally remove the two free passes it wanted to grant to “historical”. This device consisted in offering an automatic qualification to the greats of Europe who missed the qualification via their national championship. A clear step towards the closed Superleague concept. This season, such a device would have benefited this year, for example, Manchester United, 10th club in the UEFA ranking (105,000 points), but only 6th in the Premier League.
As a reminder, the four major championships will retain four qualifying places (Spain, England, Germany, Italy). France will gain a qualifying place via the championship in addition to a possibility of a fourth place via a jump-off.
The whole project is based on the desire of the authorities to make the Champions League product even more profitable. For the current period, according to The Times, UEFA and ECA expect to rake in five billion euros a year from the 2024-2027 deal across all competitions. This represents an increase in revenue of approximately 40% compared to 2021-2024.
The final arbitrations around this reform, the most massive since the creation of this competition in 1955, will be validated on May 10.
