Europe's top clubs have given their backing to the proposal that clubs should be able to qualify for the Champions League based on "historical performance".
The Champions League is being revamped and will have a new format from the 2024-25 season and there'll be 36 teams that qualify for Europe's premium club competition. To make up two of the four new spots for the Champions League the influential European Club Association gave its backing for clubs to qualify off their historical performance.
The proposal states that these will be additional spots so clubs won't have their spot taken away from them and also that there can only be a maximum of six clubs that can qualify from one nation. The historical performance will also be evaluated by Uefa's coefficient ranking, which calculates a team's performance in Europe over the past five seasons.
New Champions League Format
For those who aren't familiar with the new format of the Champions League, from 2024 UEFA will adopt a "Swiss Model" where all 36 teams will be put into one league table. Clubs will then play one match against 10 different teams, so no more of facing one club home and away like we have currently.
The top eight clubs automatically qualify for the round of 16 and clubs ranked from 9th-24th will compete in a play-off round. The teams who win their two-legged play-off round will then progress to the round of 16 and from then on it's the same knockout format we currently have.
This is what the new Champions League format will be from the 2024/25 season...
Honestly wish they'd stop trying to fix things that aren't broken! ❌ pic.twitter.com/gUswpkSPO5— Footy Accumulators (@FootyAccums) March 3, 2022
The new format does mean there'll be more matches in the group stages as well as an extra knockout round, which in theory increases the likelihood of drama and the best teams get to play against the best teams more often. However it also gives the big clubs who may under perform a couple of lifelines to keep them in the Champions League.
This new format also has echoes of the European Super League as the big clubs are given more protection from losing out on money by not going far and with over 100 more games being played, when will they fit them all in? There's still a lot of questions that need to be answered.
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