UEFA Champions League: Proposal for a New Format

Prior to Christmas, the Champions League fails to live up to expectations.  Meaningless games and uninspiring matchups leave fans disappointed.  This proposed new format will bring back romance to the Champions League.

The FA Cup in England is one of the most famous competitions in the world.  The nature of the competition, where games are played in a knockout format, adds indefinitely to the lure of the Cup.

The long group stages of the Champions League are played out simply for television.  Giant killings happen, but ultimately they are meaningless.  The group stage simply lets sponsors and television get a few more games.  But is that what fans want to see?

Forget about three rounds of qualifying and a long group stage.  The FA Cup proves fans want the romance of a cup draw.  No more meaningless matches, just a plain and simple cup.

There are 76 teams that qualify to play in the Champions League each year.  These teams come from 52 leagues across Europe.  The UEFA coefficient rankings gives each league a ranking, which determines how many places each league should get.

None of that needs to change.  Using exactly the same qualification system and the same number of qualifying teams, this is how the Champions League should work.

Qualifying Round

In order to start the competition a preliminary round is required to get rid of a few teams in order to allow for a straight knockout competition. 

To do this you start with the three teams who qualified via finishing fourth in their league.

Add in champions from the 21 lowest-ranking leagues and you have a 24-team qualifying round.  Played over a two-leg tie, this will remove 12 teams from the competition and leave 64.

Using the teams who qualified for the 2011-12 competition, here is what the draw could have looked like.  Winning teams predicted in bold italics.

Linfield	vs.	Udinese		Arsenal	vs.	FC Santa Coloma
Valletta	vs.	F91 Dudelange		Tre Fiori	vs.	HB Tórshavn
Flora Tallinn	vs.	Pyunik		Villarreal	vs.	Bangor City
FC Tobol	vs.	Neftchi Baku		Mogren	vs.	Breiðablik
Škendija	vs.	Shamrock Rovers		Maribor	vs.	Dacia Chişinău
Skonto	vs.	Skënderbeu Korçë		Ekranas	vs.	Borac Banja Luka

First Round

Now that we have 64 teams, we can complete the first round proper of the competition.  In order to avoid two top clubs meeting, there will be a seeding system.

The 12 qualifying teams will be drawn with a home leg first, against the champions from the top 12 leagues in the UEFA rankings.  In theory this guarantees the champions from the strongest league the easiest route.

This will leave 19 league champions, 15 second-place teams and six third-place teams.  These teams will not be subject to any seeding and will be subject to a random draw to complete the first-round matches.

First round of the Champions League would look like:

Udinese	vs.	Barcelona		Arsenal	vs.	Trabzonspor
Valletta	vs.	Manchester United		HB Tórsh.	vs.	Lille
F. Tallinn	vs.	AC Milan		Villarreal	vs.	B. Dortmund
Neftchi Baku	vs.	Zenit St. Petersb		Mogren	vs.	Shak. Donetsk
Shamrock	vs.	Olympiakos		Maribor	vs.	Porto
Skonto	vs.	Ajax		Ekranas	vs.	Genk
Basel	vs.	Maccabi Haifa		Rangers	vs.	Copenhagen
Inter	vs.	APOEL		Napoli	vs.	Chelsea
Man City	vs.	Wisla Krakow		Plzen	vs.	Lyon
Malmo	vs.	Bayern Munich		Valencia	vs.	Rubin Kazan
Benfica	vs.	Real Madrid		Partizan	vs.	B. Leverkusen
Marseille	vs.	CSKA Moscow		Otelul G	vs.	Twente
Helsinki	vs.	Panathinaikos		BATE	vs.	Sturm Graz
Zestafoni	vs.	Dinamo Zagreb		Videoton	vs.	Litex Lovech
Rosenberg	vs.	Slov. Bratislava		Vaslui	vs.	Fenerbache
Zurich	vs.	Dynamo Kiev		Odense	vs.	Standard Liege

Second Round

Traditionally there would be no seeding after the first round drawn, and a path to the final would be visible from the first knockout round.  But in the new Champions League, things will be different.

Sponsors and fans do not want to see the biggest teams drop out early, and so there will be another seeded draw in the second round.

Only league champions can be seeded, as this is the Champions League.

Using the UEFA coefficient, champions from the top eight leagues will be seeded, meaning they will avoid each other. 

If a champion from a top-eight league is knocked out in the first round, then the highest remaining champion will take their place as a seed.  The rest of the draw is completed at random.

Barcelona	vs.	Sturm Graz		Manchester United	vs.	Twente
Lille	vs.	Rangers		AC Milan	vs.	Real Madrid
Zenit St. Pete.	vs.	B. Leverkusen		B. Dortmund	vs.	Standard Liege
Shak. Donesk	vs.	Bayern Munich		Porto	vs.	Fenerbache
Arsenal	vs.	Videoton		Genk	vs.	Zurich
Shamrock R.	vs.	Lyon		Ajax	vs.	Rosenberg
Basel	vs.	Dinamo Zagreb		Inter	vs.	Chelsea
Manchester City	vs.	Marseille		Valencia	vs.	Helsinki

Third Round

Now after two rounds we are down to 16 teams and the final round of seeding.  In this round, only the four highest-ranked champions will be placed in the draw as seeds. 

As before, if the champions from a top-four nation have been eliminated, they are replaced by the next highest-ranked league champion.

Away from the four seeded teams the draw is completely random, bringing back the magic of a real cup competition.

Porto	vs.	Real Madrid		Barcelona	vs.	Manchester City
Manchester United	vs.	Dinamo Zagreb		B. Dortmund	vs.	Ajax
Arsenal	vs.	B. Leverkusen		Bayern Munich	vs.	Valencia
Genk	vs.	Chelsea		Lyon	vs.	Rangers

Quarterfinals

When the competition reaches the quarterfinals, all seeding is completely removed from the competition.  The draw is completely random.

That means it is possible to determine the semifinal stage here.  Before the teams are drawn for the quarterfinals, the semifinal draw will be made—winners of game one vs. winners of game three, etc.

Then as teams are drawn from the hat for the quarterfinals, they can plot their route to the final.

Real Madrid	vs.	Ajax
Manchester United	vs.	Lyon
Barcelona	vs.	Inter
Arsenal	vs.	Bayern Munich

Semifinal

Now that we have reached the semifinal stage, the top four teams in Europe will be left in the competition. 

Instead of completing several weeks of drawn-out qualifying competitions to narrow the field enough to have a group stage, we have just one round of qualifying.

Take out the group stage and the best players in the world are getting a few breaks during midweek.  The competition becomes stronger, and every game means something. 

Fans will no longer be disappointed when star players are rested, nor will they be paying a lot of money to see a game that effectively means nothing.  Instead they have a great cup competition.

Real Madrid	vs.	Manchester United
Barcelona	vs.	Bayern Munich

Final

Nothing needs to change here, except maybe ticket prices and allocations. 

Prices for the final should be capped at the average price of similar tickets in the stadium of the finalists. 

For example, if a ticket behind the goal at Barcelona is £50, and a similar ticket at Manchester United is £70, then the price of a ticket behind the goal in the final is £60.

The greatest cup final in Europe will once again be a true cup final.  Forget the group stages—just have a cup competition.

Prediction for the final in 2012 using the new format is Real Madrid vs. Bayern Munich.  Will the long group stages bring the same result?