By Martin Vongsuravatana (FootbAI) 
A new Champions League
A 36-team championship, new fixtures, seeded teams… The new Champions League format is raising a lot of questions. Here are our 11 reasons to like the new Champions League format.
Less protection for Pot 1 teams in the draw
By playing 2 teams per pot, the fixture list level is the same for all teams overall, regardless of their pot. Pot 1 teams will no longer be protected as they also have to face teams from Pot 1. PSG will face Manchester City and Bayern Munich, for example. On the other hand, the teams in pot 4 will have a few more affordable matches, so their qualification will not be reduced to a series of exploits against teams in the higher pots. With a poor run of results, a team in pot 1 can quickly find itself on the brink of elimination. Barcelona, who lost their first match to Monaco, in pot 4, could soon find themselves in danger.
Every place counts
In this new format, every place counts. To qualify, you have to be in the top 24, but to go straight into the round of 16 you have to be in the top 8. To be seeded, it’s better to be 16th than 17th or 2nd than 3rd. Every point and every goal will be important, because it’s going to come down to nothing. This confirms that the top teams are not particularly protected, even if some people are saying the opposite. It will be very complicated to be in the top 8. A large number of the big teams will finish between 9th and 24th place and will have to go through an extra round and then face a top seed team who has made the top 8. In the end, it will be easier not to be eliminated at the league stage, but much more complicated to reach the quarter-finals.
Suspense right to the end
With an interest in each place, virtually all the teams will have something to play for right up to the final day at the top or bottom of the standings. This contrasts with the old version, where many pools were played out with one or two matchdays to go. As we explained in our article presenting the format, the top 8 should play out to around 15 points and the top 24 to around 9 points. The gap between 9 and 24 will probably be 6 points, so the suspense will be there right to the end.
A chance for new teams
The balance of the fixture lists, regardless of the pot, is also positive for teams new to the European Cup, who are automatically in pot 4. Girona, for example, will face Slovan Bratislava and Sturm Graz despite being in pot 4. With the old CL version, they would have inherited a group like Manchester City, AC Milan and Sporting and would have had low chances. Last year it was Newcastle who paid the price for this problem with the old format, finding themselves in a group of death with PSG, Milan and Dortmund. This means that teams who have never qualified before will not be penalised. This season, there are plenty of them, including Aston Villa, Bologna, Stuttgart, Brest and Girona.
Unprecedented opposition
With 8 opponents in the group phase, we’re going to see some new fixtures. Stade Brestois will be playing Real Madrid, Barcelona, Leverkusen and PSV in their first Champions League. It’s going to be even more exciting for the fans.
More open matches
With 8 rounds, missing a match is less important because there are more chances to catch up. But on the other hand, every goal can be decisive, with the final standings likely to come down to goal difference. So we’re betting on matches that are more open and more attacking, combining these 2 factors.
An interest in every game
Now, every club fan will have an interest in all Champions League games because the standing table is shared by all the teams. There will no longer be this interest centred around a specific group.
A final multiplex
To ensure perfect fairness, the final matchday will be played as a multiplex, with 18 matches taking place at the same time. This multiplex promises to be one of the highlights of the 2024-2025 season.
No more entries from the CL in the Europa League
This point concerns the Europa League in particular, as no team will be dropped down from the Champions League to the Europa League. This will help make the Europa League a clearer and more interesting competition by removing the unfairness of seeing European giants who missed their group stage going to the UEL.
Plenty of big games
With the numerous pot 1 versus pot 1 clashes, this new format will offer us a large number of fixtures right from the first phase. For example, we have several rematches of recent Champions League finals with PSG-Bayern, Liverpool-Real, Manchester City-Inter and Dortmund-Real.
A step away from the Superleague
As explained in our points, this new format does not particularly favour the big clubs. In fact, it’s quite positive for newcomers. Admittedly, it’s a single league, but we are far from the Superleague proposal, with places allocated in a semi-closed system against any newcomers. This new format will generate more revenue with more fixtures and more suspense, while offering something new. In this way, the extremely elitist Superleague project promoted by certain clubs in recent years will be sidelined.
Read our article explaining the new format.
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