This New Champions League Format Is Not An Instant Hit

This New Champions League Format Is Not An Instant Hit

James Caughlin

It feels somewhat premature to make a sweeping and declarative statement one week into the new Champions League competition, but let’s do it anyway.

This new League Stage format to try and make the early part of the competition a bit more exciting has not been an instant hit.

If you might not be totally across how it works for whatever reason, here is the explanation from the official account.

In all fairness, there are positives and negatives to this new setup, and a change was kind of needed because the Group Stage had largely become a formality with the big sides happy to do just enough to get through.

There was very little jeopardy to those fixtures and more often than not, you could pencil in 14 of the 16 teams to progress once the draw was made and the other two being either/or propositions.

Eight teams would also get dropped down into the Europa League but thankfully that foolish practice has come to an end.

But there are still 24 teams that come out of the initial part of the tournament with something to play for, so it’s not like there is a whole lot of added jeopardy.

Especially with eight games instead of the six that used to make up the group stage and 10 points likely being enough to keep their respective campaigns alive.

Chances are the big teams like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and so on would much rather finish in the top eight spots to progress straight to the Round of 16 rather than having to go through that extra two-legged playoff.

However, the extra fixtures and the safety net that comes with finishing between ninth and 24th on the league table means they don’t have to really approach these early matches with any urgency.

On Matchday 1 there were a trio of scoreless draws, two of which featured English heavyweights Manchester City and Arsenal.

The Gunners, who travelled to Italy in between Premier League fixtures at Tottenham and at Manchester City were happy to play out a scoreless draw knowing they had another seven matches in the Champions League to come.

City on the other hand flexed their attacking strength a little bit more but still could not break down Inter Milan.

Barcelona lost to Monaco 2-1 in the principality and while the Catalan giants are going through a few things off the pitch, the reaction to the defeat is not seen as the end of the world.

Maybe once we reach Matchday 7 and Matchday 8 in late January and the scenarios are a bit easier to understand, we will have a bit more drama with these sides jockeying for position and the incentive of a shorter path to the final.

As an Arsenal fan I’m just glad the Gunners are back in the competition for a second straight season, but I’d be lying if I said I was sitting on the edge of my seat with anticipation last Friday morning.

Whether the confidence in the team’s ability to be one of the 24 best sides in the League Phase is justified or not, I feel like they are going to do enough in the coming matches to make sure they advance.

That feeling is likely the same for fans of many other clubs and there really is not much of an incentive to watch the matches as a neutral.

Sure there is a bit of curiosity about seeing Villa Park as they welcome Bayern Munich to town this week, or the repeat of last year’s final on Matchday 3, but the stakes just are not high enough to really generate the buzz they might have been hoping for with this revamp.