Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Uefa have announced potential plans to change the format of the Champions League after the 2017/18 season. It seems as if UEFA have been spurred on by the talk of potential breakaway European Super League plans and have felt they need to act to quell any potential breakaway threat.
Changes are still in the discussion phase and nothing can be implemented until after the 2017/18 competition due to the fact that the tournament works on a 3 year cycle. But news has broken today of a rumoured change to the setup which would see less teams in the group stage and the creation Mini ‘Super Leagues’
It is believed that the Group Stages would only involve 16 sides with two leagues of 8 that would then play each other home and away for a total of 14 matches. This would mean that the 32 teams that qualify as normal would play off in a two legged mini league qualifying round with seeded teams being protected.
This in essence would potentially filter out the lower ranked clubs in the competition and create a larger cycle of matches between the so called bigger clubs. Not only that it would further monopolise the competition. Yes the tournament needs change but would this change be the right kind?
A few initial questions that have to be raised are –
What would happen after the Super League phase, would we see just the winners meet in the final?
How will these extra matches be fitted in to an already packed calendar?
Would we still see a drop down of teams to the Europa League?
UEFA say they are in constant dialogue and any changes to the competition are still a long way off but it’s almost as if Leicester City have got the whole of Europe concerned now that the status quo is set to be disrupted.
Inter Milan were the latest side to talk about the potential to introduce wildcards for the competition, it comes as no surprise that they are suggesting this considering they have had a period of exile outside Europe’s top tier competition
But on a wider scale it seems as if big clubs are worried that their near cartel of the Champions League could be coming to an end especially in England where the league table has been turned on it’s head this season.
So if Leicester do end up winning the Premier League title this season it won’t only be the biggest fairytale in English Football it could also have ramifications across the whole of Europe. I’m sure we’ll all be watching this space with interest
