The change to the Champions League format wasn’t made with the goal of improving the quality of the group stage.
Sure, organizers will say it was done to increase drama, add stakes to every match, generate a touch of desperation and craft an explosive competitive environment that has delivered at every turn.
In reality, however, Europe’s most coveted club competition was rearranged to do essentially the opposite.
Bayer Leverkusen CEO Fernando Carro, who is a member of UEFA’s ECA board, told The Sporting News in late 2023 that they had no choice but to create the new system to keep top clubs from leaving for the proposed Super League. In the end, they compromised to prevent the creation of a fixed system which fans revolted against.
“I personally didn’t see much need to change the format, but a lot of clubs wanted to have a closed shop,” Carro said, referring to a Super League system where the participants are predetermined. “To be able to plan every year with fixed income and not qualify through national leagues.
“I believe that in Europe, we are accustomed to have relegation and qualification throughout all the leagues. It’s not of European culture to have a closed shop, and I believe that even if we would be one of the beneficiaries [of a Super League] that the dream should be available for everyone.”
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Thus, they came to an agreement: Give the bigger clubs more room for error to avoid early elimination (and, at a base level, more money from more matches) and they could come to a compromise.
The idea, Carro hinted, was that by increasing group stage matches from six to eight, it would give the biggest clubs a chance to absorb upsets and not find themselves on the outside looking in. The safety net of the 32-team table allowed them to struggle in moments and still qualify for the knockout stage.
Fans understandably asked why they felt it necessary to fix what wasn’t broken. The fear of the unknown lead many to hesitate before believing in the institutions leading the restructure.
Instead, in the first season of the new format, the change worked brilliantly — although not quite as initially intended.
Sure, the top of the table is still littered with massive European institutions such as Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal and Inter Milan. Yet a number of other annual contenders are littered around varying parts of the table. It also features Atalanta, Leverkusen, Aston Villa, Monaco, Feyenoord, Lille and Stade Brestois throughout the top half.
Real Madrid, Europe’s most successful club and this year’s defending champions, sit 16th heading into the final league phase matchday. The 15-time Champions League winners will likely be forced to navigate a tricky knockout playoff round, potentially as an unseeded club with a tougher draw.
Even more glaring is the presence of giants Manchester City on the wrong end of the cut line. They will still qualify by beating Club Brugge at home on the final day, but even just being in this situation proves the system is not foolproof. PSG are right there with them, having just beaten Man City the previous week to move into 22nd, still very much at risk.
For the general public, it’s been a smashing success.
The old format saw at least half the group stage matches contested as essentially meaningless through the final two of the six-game slate. Even playing for seeding felt pointless, as all qualifiers advanced to the same stage.
In the new format, every game has boosted emotion, meaning and high stakes. Playing for top eight is significant, avoiding the perilous knockout playoff round. Matches have been explosive at every turn — in the penultimate matchweek, 12 of the 18 matches featured at least three goals, and storylines were rampant. Even playing for seeding within each qualifying sector feels more important that it previously did, as securing the best matchup possible is critical in this environment.
While the lower cut line has indeed given room for big clubs like Madrid, Bayern Munich and PSG to recover from their struggles, it’s also allowed smaller clubs to profit from upsets in a bigger way.
The best example of this is Dutch club Feyenoord. Smashed by Bayer Leverkusen in their opener, it would have already felt unrecoverable in the old format. Instead, they rattled off wins over Girona and Benfica before a miracle last-gasp draw with Man City put them in a strong position. Then they upset Bayern Munich, and suddenly find themselves in the top third of the table.
Italian side Atalanta, meanwhile, are looking at the possibility of a top eight spot even as they absorbed a defeat to Real Madrid. They managed a draw with Arsenal and took care of business against non-Big 5 clubs, and are now facing a strong qualifying position regardless of their last-day result at Barcelona.
In fairness, Carro predicted this would happen.
“[Before], you already have some teams after four games qualified [for the knockout stage], so the last two games are not so interesting. So here, all the eight games will be interesting because they all count for the positioning,” he said. “In addition, in this league phase, you have teams in the top eight playing games against other top teams.
“So the intention is that it’s more spectacular, more…”
At this point, a multi-lingual Carro paused as he searched for the proper English translation to the German word “spannung.” That word can mean tension, stress, excitement or “suspense — and all of those adjectives would be more than appropriate for what this year’s Champions League has brought fans around the world.