Champions League Could Change to 16-Team, 14-Match Group Stage
By Ty Duffy
Europe’s big soccer clubs aren’t happy with the present Champions League model. UEFA is listening. Some radical changes may be afoot. Any change would happen after the expiration of the current TV deal in 2018.
UEFA is considering add extra qualifying, reducing the group stage from 32 teams to 16. The field would be slotted into two groups of 8. Each team would play 14 group matches creating, in effect, a league.
This change would weed out more of the smaller, BATE Borisov type clubs. With big teams playing each other more, it would offer better TV inventory and more of it, presumably increasing revenue.
While a super club sop, we confess, it would make the tournament more entertaining. Champions League group play can get pretty dire. Most matches have a clear winner. Those that don’t, say with Real Madrid and PSG, don’t mean much since both qualify.
Such a tournament may be more amenable to the super clubs than the present model. The sticking point would be access. How many clubs would be guaranteed entry into the Top 16? Does Bayern Munich wants its access to this crazy lucrative tournament dependent on a two-match playoff in August, with players still recovering from a World Cup?
Clubs could create a similar tournament outside the UEFA imprimatur, ensure themselves access to it, and keep all the revenue. If that’s successful, it’s not a huge leap, for clubs not getting the EPL TV windfall, to push for a true European Super League.