The human brain is hardwired to resist change, and status quo bias is one of the strongest logical fallacies that affects our daily lives. From 1992 until this year, European soccer fans watched the best teams on the continent compete in midweek round-robin group play. It was fun.
It was comfortable. And it often provided us with a singular “group of death” almost every year that saw multiple top teams pitted against one another. The Champions League format was inherently simple—teams were placed into pots based on past European success and drawn into groups of four teams.
After six matches, the top two teams from each group would qualify for the knockout round. A series of two-legged aggregate playoffs would narrow down the field to the final two teams, who would then meet in the final at a neutral site to determine European soccer superiority and conclude the club season. The old Champions League format had the history, the pageantry, and the iconic anthem.
A sport steeped in tradition where fans dreamed about traveling abroad for away nights across Europe. A tune that echoed throughout the grounds and into neighboring cities around Europe before kickoff. Why change it? The better question to ask is, why not change it? I might always want my favorite dish at my favorite restaurant, but it’s past time for the Champions League to try a new dish.
The fear of the unknown is one thing, but the Champions League is going to maintain so much of what we all love about it in the new format. Instead of romanticizing the past, let’s acknowledge that we’re keeping the best of the Champions League knockout stage and improving the group stage so that it’s a more essential watch. Amid a changing European soccer landscape, where the gap between the top and bottom of the Champions League field seems to be growing, the old group stage wasn’t providing consistent drama anymore.
There were occasional surprises, like Copenhagen shockingly finishing above Manchester United in last season’s Group A or Club Brugge and Porto knocking out Atlético Madrid in 2022. However, the favorites won often, and advancing beyond the group stage lacked drama. It took only four matches in last year’s group stage for Bayern to clinch first place and basically play the final two matches in second gear with partially rotated teams.
Manchester City technically needed four matches to clinch its group last season, but that group was essentially decided in Matchday 3 when City defeated Young Boys 3-1. There needed to be a spark. After a group of major European clubs attempted to challenge UEFA and create a European Super League in April 2021 but failed, the new Champions League format that debuted this week includes elements of that Super League.
The field expanded from 32 to 36 teams. All 36 teams are placed into one large table, similar to domestic European leagues. Instead of a double round-robin where each team played three home and three away matches against the other teams in their group from September to December, the league stage now runs into January and consists of eight matches against eight randomly drawn opponents.
One of the goals was to create more early-tournament matches between the top teams. Manchester City’s opening draw against Inter Milan on Wednesday is just one of the many high-profile clashes that we’ll see as a result of the changed competition. Previously, this type of match would have been far less likely until the knockout stage because the teams would have been in the same pot for the group stage draw.
Every top-nine team in Pot 1 will play two matches against a fellow top-nine club, one at home and one away. In October, we’ll see Arsenal vs. PSG, Barcelona vs.
Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig vs. Liverpool, and a rematch of the 2024 final when Real Madrid hosts Borussia Dortmund. The exciting schedule continues through January, and that’s before the playoff round adds high-stakes drama among all the second-tier teams.
It doesn’t take much investigation to see why UEFA wanted the new format. The old format consisted of six match days with 16 games per week, totaling 96 in the group stage. The new league stage includes 144 matches.
The additional playoff round for the teams ranked ninth through 24th in the table also means we’ll get 16 extra matches in February. Sixty-four extra matches across the entire competition is a huge revenue boost. More isn’t always better, and there is a tipping point where more becomes too much and devalues the product.
But there were already enough meaningless matches and one-sided victories in the old group stage, so UEFA is right to change its approach. Any further expansion may diminish the competition’s value and make it too similar to domestic leagues. However, the new format will require top teams to keep striving for the all-important bye given to the top eight in the table.
It’s been only one matchday, but Arsenal, Inter Milan, Manchester City, and RB Leipzig failed to win. When asked about the Champions League changes, Atlético Madrid manager Diego Simeone, known for his defensive tactics and ability to grind out results, said, “ This format forces us to win .” Sure enough, Simeone’s team came from behind on Thursday, scoring a late goal at home against Leipzig to win 2-1 after being down 1-0.
A draw might have been sufficient for Atlético in the past, but aiming for the top eight spots means going for victories. You get only one shot at a team now. Leipzig won’t have a return fixture in Germany to seek revenge on Atlético, but they’ll face a greater variety of opponents.
In the old system, Leipzig and Atlético would have met on the final day of the group stage. That match could have been decisive, but there was an equal if not even bigger chance that it would have been somewhat meaningless if both teams had already qualified. There’s now less risk that the top teams will be eliminated entirely, as the league format requires teams to just be in the top 24 out of 36 after eight matches to reach at least the playoff round.
When Barcelona finished third in the group of death behind Inter Milan and Bayern Munich in 2022, it was considered a disaster for the club. However, under the new system, Barcelona could lose matches against top teams and still advance if they earn enough points from matches against weaker opponents. The final-day scramble for the top eight spots will likely create chaos and intense scoreboard watching as 18 matches occur simultaneously.
The league phase format also gives lower-ranked teams a better chance to secure wins—every Pot 4 team will play two matches against other Pot 4 teams—increasing their chances of advancing as plucky underdogs. Some critics may argue that there is an excessive amount of soccer. After a summer packed with events like the European Championships , Copa América , and the Summer Olympics, there was hardly a break between the end of the summer and the start of the club season in Europe.
Take Arsenal, for instance. The Gunners had two players—Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice—who started for England in the Euro 2024 final on July 14. About a month later, Arsenal began its 38-match Premier League campaign against Wolves with both players in the starting lineup.
Add in two domestic cup competitions and the Champions League expansion, and Arsenal could potentially play up to 55 matches in the Premier League and Champions League alone. The impact of this demanding schedule was evident in Arsenal’s goalless draw with Atalanta on Thursday. Arsenal lost star midfielder Martin Odegaard to injury on Sept.
9 during the recent international break while he was playing for Norway. The Gunners are now in the midst of three straight road games. First, a North London Derby win against rival Tottenham Hotspur last Sunday, followed by a goalless draw in Bergamo on Thursday.
Now, they have a quick turnaround ahead of Sunday’s clash with defending Premier League champions Manchester City. The new Champions League format won’t allow top teams to relax until spring, highlighting the advantage of teams with greater squad flexibility and depth. While we will still see some one-sided matchups, such as Bayern Munich’s 9-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb and Bayer Leverkusen’s 4-0 victory over Feyenoord in the opening round, this format will feature more matches between teams in the same European weight class.
Last year, there were only four total matchups between the nine Pot 1 teams in the 2024-25 Champions League group stage. This year, there will be nine. The increased popularity of the new Champions League format will help restore UEFA’s image after the controversial European Super League challenge.
UEFA took the best concepts from the Super League uprising—the best teams on the continent playing each other more often—and maintained the beautiful traditions of its premier tournament. With the competitive meritocracy of the competition maintained and now more balanced, one of the most iconic anthems in sports rings even louder across the world..
