Is the new Champions League format too 'confusing' to be any good? All the changes explained

it's all change in European Club football with a new format and more matches here with me to explain it all is the sun's Chief sports reporter Martin Lipton Martin we've got Man City Arsenal Liverpool and nton Villa in the Champions League what are they facing well they're facing a much greater schedule than ever before there's going to be eight matches in an expanded uh initial phase what used to be the group phase is no longer a group phase we'll have quite confusingly a 36 Team league strcture in which the final table is only decided or is decided after only eight matches and then it will go into a a a new knockout format with a sort of Wimbledon style seeded through so you'll know from the start of the draw what your potential path will be there's other changes as well there's broadcasting changes uh there's a the whole way the draw is is um undertaken in Monaco at the end of the month will be very different as well so is there seeded teams how do we decide where each of the say the four English are going to be the decision on the seeding was taken uh based on UEFA rankings over the last five years which means that City and Liverpool are in the top seeding group Arsenal in the second seeding group and Villa because they've only had one season in in Europe in the last five in fact one season in Europe in the last 30 odd um they're in the bottom seeding group so but it isn't as simple as that because the change in structure there's nine teams in each seeding group and every team will play two teams from each seeding group but cannot play a team from their own country in the initial phase and they can do in The Knockout phase but not in the initial phase so Liverpool cannot play City but could play Bayern Munich and Real Madrid for example do you that that sounds quite complicated already do you think fans will get used to the format and that it'll play itself out quite simply once we get going I think it's going to be confusing for everybody from the St uh we're not used to A system that uses this so-called Swiss model uh you know we've got very used to 14 te groups top two go through into a knockout that's that's all gone that's done and dusted so this format will be interesting to watch they're confident in UEFA that there'll be fewer dead matches because of the way the the system works so the best uh eight teams in the league system the the top eight go seeded straight through to the last 16 the teams that are 9th to 24th play off to join them in the last 16 the teams that are 25th to the bottom they don't filter through into the Europa League like they they might have done in the past there no um migration from competitions so they're out after eight games but of course always in the past for the last 20 years the league has finished the group stage has finished in December this goes into January there are two match dates in January as well are you in favor of the changes do you like it some of the ideas I think it's worth having a look at something new and fresh whether it will work I'm I'm less sure I think fans and others will be confused by I said a league system that's not really a league system it's only a partial League system that doesn't seem particularly Fair particularly if you get a few injuries at the start of the season um but we're going to have to have this I suspect for at least six years they're going to go to market for the next threeyear cycle halfway through next season which is too early to judge whether this has been a success so we're probably going to get six years of this to get used to it I mean in the end it's coming down to trying to keep the bigger clubs ons side this was originally drafted as an antidote to the potential of a fakeaway super league the irony is it was actually launched as a concept a day before the Super League tried to launch three years ago um so it didn't head off them head them off at the past too well but now we're in and there seems to be an agreement by all the all the major clubs with the exception of Real Madrid and Barcelona that they're going to be party to this and they're obviously both going to play in it anyhow so everyone's in for those of us who are still a little unclear on what it'll look like will we be able to look at a league table after say a first round of matches and understand where your Club figures well the answer that is simple yes but it'd be like looking at the Premier League Table after one match and trying to draw conclusions from that I mean it'd be a bit premature I'd say CLE idea where things are going after three or four matches um in the league because then it'll be there should be some sort of distance in between between the clubs what you will get which I think is is interesting is more big matches between big teams in the initial phase you know we used to Real Madrid and and City only playing in The Knockout stage as they did last season there's a chance genuine chance that they could meet in September albe it it's only points on on offer but there's also a value if you come top of the league you get a bigger bonus the the the it's a very much more of a um performance related payment system than the previous one but are we looking at one long League table of 36 teams is that what we're yes it will be a single League table in the Champions League in the Europa League and in the conference League I well that takes us on to that of course we've got uh who've got in we've got Spurs and man united in the Europa League you say it's going to follow exactly the same format the Europa League does it's eight matches again uh the conference league is slightly different still a single League of 36 but they only have six matches in the conference League the design is that uh certain weeks will be Champions League only weeks they got 10 midweek Windows between early September and the end of January where the matches will be played some weeks will just have Champions League others will just have conference League or or Europa League some weeks the majority will have all three being played on Tuesday Wednesday Thursday why have we moved into a Thursday as well for Champions League games because there's going to be 18 matches and they'd rather have three groups of six than two nines to ensure that more matches can be watched simultaneously as it were more you can watch more games over the course of the midweek that's only be in the Champions League only weeks in the majority of weeks I think six of the eight it will be the normal say normal Tuesday Wednesday with nine games on each day now you say some of this was to Plate the bigger clubs who wanted more Revenue Etc but we've already heard from say likes Bernardo Silva from Manchester City who's been talking about the fact that City wor they to get to the final of everything could have a 75 Game season and we know rodri last season was complaining that it was all too much and yet the clubs want more even if the players don't necessarily want it absolutely it's why City and Chelsea and all the others who are have been invited will take part in the club World Cup potentially seven matches in June July after the season has finished they all want more money they've got to pay the bills they got to pay the players uh wages and prize money from UEFA and FIFA in the cas of the club World Cup will help to do that i' sort of calculated with a bit of help from from UFA that City could if they win every match earn somewhere in the region of 140 145 million pounds from the Champions League alone that doesn't take into account gate revenues City start before kicking a ball with 53 million quid from this new uh package Liverpool get 51 million Arsenal about 46 and Villa give or take around 33 million quid now if you compare that to the Europa League Spurs and United get 12 million quid without kicking a ball Chelsea in the conference League 5 million conference league is going to cost Chelsea money do you think uh you say that it's set up to go on for like six years but do you anticipate maybe a reevaluation of the way it works in a year's time I know there's various qualifications but that you the way you're talking that there is a danger that it may not work out the way UEFA hope it would I think that's a very real d people might not like it simply won't understand it but as I said because they're going to go to market before you've had real time to uh address and and Val evaluate what's happened I think we're stuck in that seems to be the view within UEFA for two cycles which is six years it will be some year point in year four or five but there may be consideration of another change and I think that could well happen if this doesn't work remember we had the old system of the second group phase for at least 68 years years uh even though people were moaning after one cycle that it simply wasn't working um and they had to go through another cycle before they could find a a new format which is when they went to the the the previous Champions League format of the the last uh 16 because obviously prior to that it been two group phases in the last eight so there's always going to be this Evolution um as I said I I think conceptually there's some elements of this that that makes sense others I'm I'm I'm less certain about and I'm and I'm not convinced that initially people look going to look at that table and understand what's going on I think that would be the bigger issue in the first year or two they it doesn't look right so if we can just break it down if I'm in a league of 36 how exactly do you decide which eight games eight teams I'm playing so there's a really clever computer there's always a clever computer this is a genuine super Compu as opposed to a super Compu which we see written about a lot so the algorithm has been um prepared and and and sorted through we will basically get one team gets drawn out of the hat first in Monaco at the end end of the month and then you will see instantly a Cascade of randomly computer assigned teams two from each pot who they will play in the group or the league phase and then very soon after that you'll get the list of fixtures because there's this whole thing about flu groups you know Tuesdays and Wednesdays so certain teams don't play each other on the same day so City are paired with Liverpool for example they won't play on the same day or maybe Arsenal there'll be a decision by the by the forecasters as to who that will be another slight difference of course is this this TV contract so most of the matches will be on um TNT but every Tuesday one match which will be an english team the best English match of the Tuesday according to them will be on Amazon Prime and all the highlights are on BBC on a Wednesday night so that's a big change the first time um that BBC had had Champions League highlights goodness me um do you think that UEFA are all on board together with this new format or behind the scenes are we seeing divisions and people who think it'll never work I think there's some within UEFA who are concerned uh that it might not work others are fully on board and it seems to be a view at the moment that there's enough agreement between UEFA and the big clubs the European Club association which is the vast majority of of clubs in Europe that this is worth having a look at having a go there are caveats there are questions there are doubts but they're all on board at this juncture we'll start to hear the complaints pretty soon if people don't like it but at the moment it's a case of hanging together rather than hanging separately as you say not long till it all kicks off the proof will be in the pudding