Super League, SuperBowl… Even UEFA know the Champions League has to change

The peculiar end to last season’s Champions League has prompted UEFA to reconsider the competition’s format long term.

As a result of the delay in the season, the final eight teams gathered for one-legged ties held across two stadiums in Lisbon.

The attraction of the mini tournament, both for a viewer and a shareholder, has pushed UEFA to believe that the Champions League may have to change in order to progress.

“After the pandemic, we had to do a system like this,” UEFA president Alexander Ceferin said after the Champions League final stages in July.

“We had to play in this way but, in the end, we can see that it’s an interesting system. The fans want exciting games where, in every game, one team can beat the other in the Champions League and Europa League.

“So it’s something we have to consider for the future…”

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, the president of Bayern Munich, has let some of these considerations slip.

“UEFA are viewing the final week as a major footballing attraction, a bit like the SuperBowl,” Rummenigge told Bayern’s club media recently. “That sounds good, in my opinion. The group phase of the Champions League is boring.” Read More