Champions League 2024: New format with 10-match first phase set to be agreed

[CheddarReds]

 

 

 

[Mr Popodopolous]

The poster who mentioned 64 teams, was thinking about this earlier.

64 teams, 16 groups of 4.

Each European National League has their Domestic Champion qualify.

You then allocate the remaining places on Sporting merit. Maximum of 3, perhaps even two clubs per League in total. Or perhaps through qualifiers, unsure which?

You also could do away with Group Stage and have straight open draw two leg knockouts? Would add a certain element of jeopardy, even for a big club straight knockout 2nd leg or 1st leg in November away to say Dynamo Kiev would be difficult.

Hostile crowd, freezing conditions- the underdog knowing they can sit extremely deep in away leg. No safety net of a 6 game group stage...definitely would throw uncertainty into the mix!

However if Group Stages are here to stay and you have at least one from every country guaranteed that could be a bit of a game changer over time, for development of the game and National Leagues.

That said it didn't really help Celtic or Rangers to kick on in Europe all that often...but then neither did seedings, club coefficients etc.

System is and has been very much tilted in favour of the 'big' clubs and Leagues- and big clubs within those Leagues- for a while now however.

On a domestic level, 1992. On a European level, I'd argue European Cup to CL and then constantly tweaking the format and cash distribution to flow to bigger clubs.

Bosman ruling and the end of the two foreign player rule surely didn't help either.