Hi,
This coming season the Champions League group stage will be replaced as described below:
Under the new format, teams will play eight matches in the new league phase (former group stage). They will no longer play three opponents twice – home and away – but will instead face fixtures against eight different teams, playing half of those matches at home and half of them away. To determine the eight different opponents, the teams will initially be ranked in four seeding pots. Each team will then be drawn to play two opponents from each of these pots, playing one match against a team from each pot at home, and one away.
The results of each match will decide the overall ranking in the new league, with three points for a win and one for a draw still applying.
The top eight sides in the league will qualify automatically for the round of 16, while the teams finishing in 9th to 24th place will compete in a two-legged knock-out phase play-off to secure their path to the last 16 of the competition. Teams that finish 25th or lower will be eliminated, with no access to the UEFA Europa League.
Just wondering what people on here think of this new format. There are more games than the previous model. City should be finishing in the top eight so two more games than previously. It does not seem clear if there will be a benefit for finishing as high as possible rather than just scraping into the top eight.
I think that the changes will improve the Champs League as a competition but the extra games and competition may be detrimental to domestic competitions. Change is needed as some of the group games (in general rather than just City specifically) have been pretty dull.
Thoughts?