Uefa have become the subject of fierce criticism following widespread reportsof discussions taking place that could bring about major changes to theformatting of the Champions League.
Various news outlets are reporting that European football’s governing body isplanning to whittle down the group stages of the competition to just twoeight-team mini-leagues by adding further qualifying rounds – creating morefixtures between the ‘bigger’ clubs.
If the changes are implemented, they would come into place in the 2018/19season, as no alterations can be made to the tournament in its current statedue to television and marketing rights.
The process for selling the next set of rights for the competition will startat the end of the current year, and any new format must be agreed by then.
A Uefa spokesman said, as reported by Sky Sports: “Uefa is in constantcontact with all stakeholders, including the clubs, on all football matters.Therefore, any plans to evolve the format of our club competitions would becoordinated and negotiated together with them.
“There are currently no concrete proposals on the table since we are at thebeginning of a new cycle of our club competitions.”
Discussions are being held in a bid to fend off talk of a new ‘Super League’forming between the top clubs on the continent, but this new format would nodoubt make things harder for smaller clubs to make the group stages.
Under the proposed new format, group stage teams would be guaranteed to play14 matches, but the top four would progress to the last eight, making itlikely that the same big clubs would make it through every year.
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