Kaveh Solhekol explains the new Champions League format

Why are we changing the Champions League look just remind us why we're actually changing a system that potentially Works already um the simple answer is the European Super League a couple of years ago there was a threat of a new Breakaway Super League a lot of the big clubs wanted to join the Breakaway so they put pressure on UEFA to change the Champions League because they're not happy with it as it is at the moment especially the group stage because there are quite a lot of games where there's not a lot riding on them where you know for instance that the top sides are going to get through the group stage uh pretty easily and also there's pressure on UEFA because clubs want to play more games because they want to make more money even though you hear a lot of managers and players yeah you hear managers and players saying we don't want to play more games uh the people who own the clubs certainly do want to be playing more games and making more more money so that is the background to why we've had these changes for what it's worth I think the new format is an improvement on what we have at the moment I think it will be more interesting it will have better more competitive games but I think it's going to take a lot of getting your head round because it is complicated having one League of 36 teams I mean the league is so big that you can't you can't fit it on one TV screen you know we're going to have to show the top and then the bottom uh but I think if you invest a little bit of time into getting your head around it uh you'll understand it especially once the uh competition actually starts and then I think it could be a winner for UEFA could be a winner yeah for UEFA so are the clubs Are the clubs happy happy I mean the owners potentially happy but would the fans be happy they've got to travel more is it eight group games rather than six is this good news for fans or bad news sorry I think the clubs um are happier than they are at the moment because they will have more games in total in the whole Champions League they're going to be an extra 64 games so we're going to go from a total of 125 games to 189 games but each Club is guaranteed to play Eight Games at the moment that's six so the clubs I think will be happy because they've got two extra games and the way the format works in the league phase is that that you will play eight games against different opponents at the moment you're playing home and away in the group stage against the same team that's not going to happen so you'll have a variety and also the league phase will be seeded into four pots and you're guaranteed to play against two teams in each pot so you'll play two games against the best eight teams two games against the next best eight uh two games against the next best eight and two games against the eight weakest teams so you get more variety of competition and you'll get better games between the big sides as well in the initial League phase and then finally once the league phase is done you get the excitement of The Knockout phase which we're used to which is going to stay the same Home and Away uh and then a one game final um When will it start does that mean that this is all going to start in April when do we start you know it starts in it starts September no I mean I I was being a bit factious there but in terms of you know it's all the same sort of starting times in terms of Champions League then it's not going to have to come forward even earlier uh no I think it starts in September I mean there are more games overall but they're squeezed yeah squeezed in and clubs are playing two extra games I think there was originally uh a plan for clubs to play 10 games uh but uh people at UEFA thought that was too much that was excessive so they've cut it back to eight games how important is this for you wafer for this to work this new system I think it is really important I would go so far as to say I think this could be the last throw of the dice for UEFA when it comes to the format of the Champions League because don't forget that in the background we still have the European Super League the company behind that a22 they're not going away they were all in London last week at the financial times uh football business Summit they are uh steaming right ahead with their plans to set up a rival Super League so there is a lot riding on this this has to work for UEFA because we're seeing a lot of new owners coming into uh European football and these owners want to be playing bigger games against the bigger clubs they want growth they want to make more money they want football to develop and if they don't get that from UEFA I think they will look elsewhere and that could be to the people behind uh the so-called Super League just finally and very briefly though I can hear hear alarm bells ringing I can hear I mean I know jgen klopp won't be at Liverpool next year but I mean he's certainly a manager that's always talking about player fatigue and you know kind of no more games you know and I even speaking to to Alarm bells ringing people like David Moyes you know preseason friendlies that's that's an add-on so this is just another Yeah couple of games and also at the end of next uh season there's also the club World Cup uh the FIFA Club World Cup in the summer as well I think when it comes to managers they need to be having these conversations with the people who own their clubs you know it's all well and good having these conversations with you know the Premier League or UEFA or FIFA yes have those conversations but the bottom line is the pressure to have more games is coming from the people who own the clubs because they want to make more money a lot of them are losing money and they want to stop losing money and maybe break even and maybe make a little bit of a profit but it is the people who own the clubs who are behind this push uh to expand the game and play more games and make more money and you've seen it whenever they have time off what do they do they go on preseason tours to make M for man to manage the final point I would make actually I forgot is obviously uh this new champions league is expanding from 32 teams to 36 so there's an extra four places okay and that could mean that fifth place in the Premier League this season will get you in the Champions League that all depends on how well English clubs perform in Europe this season uh so if you're in the top two places in the UEFA coefficient you get an extra place at the moment English clubs are third so at the moment the extra place would go to Italy and Germany so it all depends on how well English clubs do in the rest of the European season uh you know Liverpool West Ham Brighton Manchester City Aston Villa Arsenal if they do really really well that will get England's coefficient up and that could mean that fifth place will get you a place in the Champions League next season so in a funny kind of way if Arsenal for instance do really really well maybe even win the Champions League that could be doing Spurs a favor because it might get them into the Champions League Via Fifth Place see what you've done there sneaky