If you hated the Super League just wait until you see the new Champions League format

How does Uefa’s flagship club competition stack up against now-doomed rebel tournament - and is it really a Super League in all but name?

Champions League changes 2024 new format super league
Clubs and Uefa have been at loggerheads over the famous competition Credit: REUTERS

Opposition is mounting to the revamped Champions League following the stunning collapse of the Super League.

But how does Uefa’s flagship club competition stack up against the now-doomed rebel tournament and is it really a Super League in all but name?

Format

Champions League: Formally ratified on Monday in defiance at the Super League’s launch and due to begin in 2024, the revamped tournament essentially replaces the current 32-team group stage, which is split into eight groups of four, with one of a single 36-team group using the so-called ‘Swiss system’.

Instead of playing three group opponents home and away across six match-days, teams will play 10 different opponents of varying strengths. The top eight sides in the group phase will qualify automatically for the knockout stage, with those finishing between ninth and 24th squaring off in a two-legged play-off to join the top eight in the knockout stages. This will massively increase the total number of matches in the competition from 125 to 225.

Super League: The Super League was to involve just 20 clubs, including 15 permanent members, and due to begin before the end of next year. The 20 were to be split into two groups of 10 teams competing home and away across a total of 18 match-days.

At the end of the first round, the top three in each group were to qualify automatically for the quarter-finals, with the fourth- and fifth-placed teams playing off for the two remaining spots. From the quarter-finals onwards, the Super League was to follow the same format as the Champions League. The total number of matches would have been 197 – 180 in the group stage and 17 in the knockout rounds.

Favouring the big clubs

Champions League: The new format includes the latest in a series of concessions made down the years to appease the big clubs and stave off a Super League. The one that has met with the most opposition is the back-door entry for the two highest-ranked teams who fail to get into the tournament on merit but who qualify instead for one of Uefa’s other club competitions. That is most likely to be one of the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’. An additional 100 matches also risks seeing the big clubs cannibalising their domestic rivals’ commercial revenues.

Super League: The format completely undermined the fundamental link between membership of one competition being based on success in another in the previous season. In one sense, it is impossible to be more favourable towards big clubs than to guarantee their participation in a competition in perpetuity, something that would see an even greater cannibalisation of non-participating clubs’ revenues. However, the backlash against the concept indicated forging ahead with it would have been one of the biggest acts of self-harm ever committed in football.

Finances

Champions League: The current competition shares almost €2billion a year among participating clubs. This is divided into four pillars: a quarter on participation fees; 30 per cent on performance bonuses; 30 per cent on co-efficient ranking (performances over a 10-year period); and 15 per cent on TV market pool (the proportional value of each TV market).

This means a hugely disproportionate amount of the income ends up in the hands of the biggest clubs. Solidarity payments for the current three-year cycle have still not been agreed, let alone those for 2024 onwards. Uefa has promised a “significant increase” in broadcast revenue under the new format and has held talks with Centricus Asset Management over a £5.2bn cash injection.

Super League: Super League clubs projected they could raise upwards of €4bn a year from global broadcasting and sponsorship rights. They wanted almost a third of this to be shared among the 15 founder members, with the same amount distributed among all 20 participating teams.

The plan was for 20 per cent of those revenues to be performance-related, with 15 per cent shared based on audience size. The clubs also tried to sell the concept by pledging solidarity payments in excess of €10bn over 23 years. The launch of the competition was to be bankrolled by American investment bank JP Morgan to the tune of £4.3bn.

Broadcast

Champions League: BT Sport holds the UK television rights after paying £1.2bn in 2019 to renew them for the 2021-24 seasons.

Super League: Streaming platform DAZN was initially said to be lined up to show Super League matches, something it denied. BT, Sky Sports and Amazon all issued statements denying any involvement in it and denouncing the concept.

 What do you think of the new Champions League format? Let us know in the comments section below.