The Champions League reform is almost ready, and the format of the competition after 2024 seems set to change from 32 to 36 teams.
Il Corriere dello Sport writes the new format will provide more games between the European giants and the last knot to solve is the four extra places in the competition.
To win the current competition, you will have to play 13 games: six in the group stage, two legs in the last 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals, followed by the one Final on neutral turf.
The Champions League reform is almost ready, and the format of the competition after 2024 seems set to change from 32 to 36 teams.
Il Corriere dello Sport writes the new format will provide more games between the European giants and the last knot to solve is the four extra places in the competition.
To win the current competition, you will have to play 13 games: six in the group stage, two legs in the last 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals, followed by the one Final on neutral turf.
In the future, the newspaper highlights this will increase to 17 games, as all the teams will play 10 games during the first phase.
The UEFA thus have more games to sell to broadcasters, expanding from 125 to 209, and the report claims it was necessary to increase the revenues of the event and to distribute more money.
But, as The Athletic also pointed out, it remains to be seen who the extra four places will go to.
The outlet writes it could also be based on ‘historic achievements’, and a previously successful team could still qualify for the Champions League after a 'bad season'.
But those four places could also be awarded to Leagues, with France pushing to have one more team in the competition and the Premier League and La Liga would also like to add a fifth side.
Il Corriere dello Sport reports the 36 teams will be concentrated in a single group but divided into four categories based on the UEFA ranking.
Each team will play five games at home and five games away: 2 games will be against opponents of the same group: the other eight will be divided equally among the remaining categories.
At the end of the first phase, the first eight will advance to the knockout stages, while the teams from ninth to 24th will play in a play-off to create the remaining eight teams for the knockout board.