The new European Champions League, or the new version of the tournament, sparked event and controversy at the same time, before its start, during the draw process, and at its launch, due to its new system, which witnessed a change in the competition system and an increase in the number of teams, compared to what was the case previously.
The Champions League competition during the current season 2024-25 will witness the participation of 36 teams instead of 32, as was the case previously, and its system has changed to a tournament format in the first round instead of groups, before reaching the knockout rounds.
Observers believe that the European Football Association (UEFA) decided to adopt this formula, which witnesses the holding of many matches, in addition to increasing financial revenues, in order to block the way for the clubs that wanted to establish the “Super League” tournament, most notably the Spanish Barcelona and Real Madrid.
Disadvantages appear in the new Champions League
Although it is difficult to make a final judgment on the current version of the competition, the “win winHe can monitor some of the negatives that appear in the Champions League with its new system, the most prominent of which is that increasing the number of teams from 32 to 36 led to a huge difference in level between one club and another.
The result so far has been scandals and heavy results in the matches played in the first and second rounds of the first round, the most important of which is the victory of Bayern Munich of Germany with a score of (9-2) against Dinamo Zagreb of Croatia, and the victory of Borussia Dortmund from the same country with a score of (7-1) over Celtic of Scotland. .
Among the large and broad results witnessed in the first and second rounds as well, was Barcelona’s 5-0 victory over Swiss Young Boys, and the English Manchester City and Italian Inter Milan’s 4-0 victory against Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia and Red Star of Serbia, respectively.
These heavy results show the great difference in level between the first-class clubs and the teams that can be described as modest, and these are the results that did not appear permanently and continuously in the old version. To glorify European competitions.
Before today, Wednesday, October 2, 27 matches were played in the new Champions League 2024-25, in which 89 goals were scored, an average of 3.3 goals in each match, and an average of one goal every 27 minutes.
The new Champions League… matches and a lot of money
The financial factor is the main reason that prompted the European Football Association to increase the number of teams participating in the new Champions League in its current version, including increasing the number of matches and increasing its financial revenues as well.
Each of the teams participating in the competition will play 8 matches during the first round, after which the playoff round matches will be held to qualify for the round of 16 for the teams that did not occupy the first eight places in the first round, and then comes the 16th round, then the quarter-finals, up to the semi-finals and finally. Final.
The number of financial profits allocated by UEFA in the new version of the Double-Eared Cup reaches 2.47 billion euros, an increase estimated at 500 million euros compared to the old version, and each team that wins in the new version receives 2.1 million euros, and 0.7 million for a draw.
The team participating in the new Champions League will receive 18.6 million euros, the team that qualifies for the quarter-finals 11 million, the quarter-finals 12.5 million, the semi-finals 15 million, the qualifier to the final receives 18 million, while the one who wins the title receives 25 million euros.
These observations recorded on the Champions League in its new version remain temporary, pending the emergence of other events and indicators to finally rule on the new format of the competition, and this will only happen at the end of the current football season.
