Louis van Gaal Slams New Champions League Format as Corrupt Money Grab
Former Ajax and Barcelona coach Louis van Gaal has sharply criticized the expanded UEFA Champions League, calling the current competition format ridiculous and describing European soccer’s governing body as a corrupt world focused purely on financial gain. In an interview with NOS, the 75-year-old manager argued that the tournament has been diluted to the point where lesser teams are allowed entry, resulting in excessive scorelines and an unnecessary burden on player health.
The revised tournament structure, introduced at the start of the 2024–25 season, replaced the traditional group stage with a single 36-team league table. Participating clubs now play eight matches each during the opening phase instead of the previous six, expanding the total fixture calendar before the knockout rounds begin.
According to Van Gaal, the dramatic rise in goals per match this season — which reached an average of 4.16 per game in early fixtures — stems directly from vast competitive imbalances between elite clubs and weaker entrants.
Parallels to past editions highlight how drastically the tournament has evolved. During the 1994–95 season, when Van Gaal led Ajax to the European title, the competition featured just sixteen clubs and averaged 2.3 goals per match. Back in 1994, Van Gaal publicly labeled the newly formed Champions League a commercial monstrosity, signaling a decades-long opposition to UEFA’s commercial expansion.
Fixtures, Injuries, and the Call for Tiered Restructuring
Beyond competitive quality, Van Gaal warned that the increased match load directly threatens player welfare by causing a surge in injuries. As evidence, he pointed to a recent high-profile fixture between Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona that ended in a 4–2 victory for the French side, a match where PSG lost multiple key players, including Chvitsja Kvaratschelia, Ousmane Dembélé, and Marquinhos, to physical setbacks.
While praising the attacking intent displayed by managers Hansi Flick and Luis Enrique in that encounter, Van Gaal maintained that such high-level spectacles are the exception rather than the rule. He argued that clubs with immense financial backing can assemble deep rosters capable of sustaining such demands, while ordinary participants struggle under the strain.
To resolve the congestion and competitive mismatch, Van Gaal proposed abandoning the single-table format in favor of a tiered divisional system comparable to professional ice hockey. Under this model, teams would be separated into distinct levels such as A-tier and B-tier competition. He criticized UEFA for leaning on the Europa League and Conference League as secondary safety nets rather than addressing the core structural flaws at the top level.
“I told the UEFA twenty years ago, but they don’t listen to me,” Van Gaal stated, reiterating that a streamlined approach divided strictly by competitive level would produce tighter matches, fewer injuries, and a truer standard of elite European soccer.
