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"contents": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The European Champions League is one of the most loved sports competitions, known for pitting some of the best clubs from Europe against each other and delivering memorable battles in the sport. The 2005 final between Liverpool and AC Milan is one such memorable tussle.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, on Thursday 29 August, the Union of European Football Associations (Uefa) unveiled a new format for the beloved competition. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is one of many guises that the competition has taken since its inception in 1955, when it began as just a straight knockout competition that was only open to clubs that were league champions of their countries in Europe.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Out with the old</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the early 1990s it shapeshifted slightly as the qualification criteria expanded to include more than one entrant from Europe’s leading domestic leagues, necessitating the introduction of a round-robin group stage where teams were divided into mini-leagues of four clubs. In 2003, it expanded to 32 teams.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under this outgoing format, the four teams in each group played six matches apiece – playing each team in their mini-league home and away. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two teams who were first and second at the culmination of the group phase would then advance to the round of 16 knockout phase, while the team in third spot would drop down to the second-tier Europa League.</span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2339482\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/75138637-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1745\" /> <em>Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin. (File photo)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then a draw would follow to determine which teams would face each other over two legs in the round of 16, with the winner advancing to a two-legged quarterfinal, then a semifinal, until there was just one more team remaining following a final played in a European country of Uefa’s choosing.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The knockout part of the new Champions League will remain as explained above. Consisting of two-legged round of 16, quarterfinal and semifinal fixtures. With a one-match final.</span>\r\n<h4><b>In with the new</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The change of format comes in the fact that Uefa has now replaced the longstanding group stage with what they’ve termed the “league phase”. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The league phase sees the number of participating teams increase from 32 to 36. Thus, allowing some teams who may have never experienced the Champions League an opportunity to have a taste of what makes it so special.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In contrast to the broken-down groups of the previous iteration of the competition, in this new dawn of the elite European club competition, all 36 teams will be lumped into a single supergroup/league.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Traditionally, a league format sees a team play each opponent twice and earn points for a win or draw, while earning no points for a defeat. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, in the English Premier League there are 20 teams, and a single team plays the other 19 twice each over the course of a season (home and away). All this for a total of 38 league matches per team, with the side that accumulates the most points being crowned English champions. </span>\r\n\r\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2339481\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/12461528.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1594\" height=\"1057\" /> <em>Liverpool manager Arne Slot in a heated moment during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool FC and Brentford FC in Liverpool, on 25 August 2024. (Photo: EPA-EFE/Adam Vaughan)</em></p>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the Champions League has borrowed from this traditional league format, it has tweaked it. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead of one team playing the other 35 sides in the “league” twice each for points, the participating teams will only play eight matches during this phase of the competition. This means just two more matches than the six that were played in the old group phase.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Teams cannot play any league phase games against teams from their own domestic league. Additionally, they cannot play more than two games against teams from the same country. The software that heads the draw ensures this. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another change is that instead of playing each of the eight opponents twice (home and away), in this rebranded Champions League a single team will play four games at home, while playing the other four away from home.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example… During Thursday’s draw in Monaco, reigning European champions Real Madrid were drawn against the team they beat in last season’s final, Borussia Dortmund, as well as AC Milan, Red Bull Salzburg, Stuttgart. They will play all these teams at home. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But they will have to travel for their tussles against Liverpool, Lille, Atalanta and Brest.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This means the maximum number of points they can potentially collect during the group phase is 24, if they were to somehow win all their games. The same principle will be applicable to all the other 35 teams present in the league phase.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Uefa is set to announce the exact order of the fixtures for each club on 31 August.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Knockout time</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amid all these changes, the days and times of the Champions League will remain as they have been for decades now. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will still be a midweek competition, played during the same slots as its predecessor. However, the new group phase is set to conclude on 29 January 2025, about a month later than the previous guise of the group stage. Teams that finish 25th and below will be immediately eliminated, with no second chances in the Europa League.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upon the conclusion of this stage of the competition, the top eight teams will advance straight to the round of 16. The sides who finish between ninth and 24th on the log will then have to play a “knockout playoff”.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This consists of eight two-legged knockout ties, where the winner of each of these matches will join the top eight from the group in the round of 16 proper. From then on, everything will proceed as it has in previous Champions Leagues. Until one team remains.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Why the change?</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A couple of years ago, Europe’s top clubs attempted to create their own breakaway European Super League, accusing soccer administrators of greed while it is the clubs and players that make the sport. The attempted breakaway eventually collapsed.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, it lingered in the minds of Uefa – which believes that this new version of the competition will bring more excitement and pit the continent’s best against each other more frequently before the knockout rounds, as was the aim of the failed Super League.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The federation also believes the rejigged Champions League will allow for more corporate partnerships, increasing the cash flow within the European soccer system. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The thing is that from one point of view, we have clubs saying we cannot afford to pay the players and coaches any more. They are in financial difficulties,” Uefa president Aleksander Čeferin told Sky Sports.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“From the other point of view, players, of course, don’t want to play more matches. But with these interesting matches, this will be a benefit for everyone,” Čeferin said.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In most realms of life, change can be met with resistance. Uefa is hopeful that once all stakeholders acclimatise to this new format it will be as fruitful as the previous version of the competition. </span><b>DM</b>",
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"description": "<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The European Champions League is one of the most loved sports competitions, known for pitting some of the best clubs from Europe against each other and delivering memorable battles in the sport. The 2005 final between Liverpool and AC Milan is one such memorable tussle.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, on Thursday 29 August, the Union of European Football Associations (Uefa) unveiled a new format for the beloved competition. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is one of many guises that the competition has taken since its inception in 1955, when it began as just a straight knockout competition that was only open to clubs that were league champions of their countries in Europe.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Out with the old</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the early 1990s it shapeshifted slightly as the qualification criteria expanded to include more than one entrant from Europe’s leading domestic leagues, necessitating the introduction of a round-robin group stage where teams were divided into mini-leagues of four clubs. In 2003, it expanded to 32 teams.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under this outgoing format, the four teams in each group played six matches apiece – playing each team in their mini-league home and away. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two teams who were first and second at the culmination of the group phase would then advance to the round of 16 knockout phase, while the team in third spot would drop down to the second-tier Europa League.</span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2339482\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"2560\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2339482\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/75138637-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1745\" /> <em>Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin. (File photo)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then a draw would follow to determine which teams would face each other over two legs in the round of 16, with the winner advancing to a two-legged quarterfinal, then a semifinal, until there was just one more team remaining following a final played in a European country of Uefa’s choosing.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The knockout part of the new Champions League will remain as explained above. Consisting of two-legged round of 16, quarterfinal and semifinal fixtures. With a one-match final.</span>\r\n<h4><b>In with the new</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The change of format comes in the fact that Uefa has now replaced the longstanding group stage with what they’ve termed the “league phase”. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The league phase sees the number of participating teams increase from 32 to 36. Thus, allowing some teams who may have never experienced the Champions League an opportunity to have a taste of what makes it so special.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In contrast to the broken-down groups of the previous iteration of the competition, in this new dawn of the elite European club competition, all 36 teams will be lumped into a single supergroup/league.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Traditionally, a league format sees a team play each opponent twice and earn points for a win or draw, while earning no points for a defeat. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, in the English Premier League there are 20 teams, and a single team plays the other 19 twice each over the course of a season (home and away). All this for a total of 38 league matches per team, with the side that accumulates the most points being crowned English champions. </span>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_2339481\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1594\"]<img class=\"size-full wp-image-2339481\" src=\"https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/12461528.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1594\" height=\"1057\" /> <em>Liverpool manager Arne Slot in a heated moment during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool FC and Brentford FC in Liverpool, on 25 August 2024. (Photo: EPA-EFE/Adam Vaughan)</em>[/caption]\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the Champions League has borrowed from this traditional league format, it has tweaked it. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Instead of one team playing the other 35 sides in the “league” twice each for points, the participating teams will only play eight matches during this phase of the competition. This means just two more matches than the six that were played in the old group phase.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Teams cannot play any league phase games against teams from their own domestic league. Additionally, they cannot play more than two games against teams from the same country. The software that heads the draw ensures this. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another change is that instead of playing each of the eight opponents twice (home and away), in this rebranded Champions League a single team will play four games at home, while playing the other four away from home.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example… During Thursday’s draw in Monaco, reigning European champions Real Madrid were drawn against the team they beat in last season’s final, Borussia Dortmund, as well as AC Milan, Red Bull Salzburg, Stuttgart. They will play all these teams at home. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But they will have to travel for their tussles against Liverpool, Lille, Atalanta and Brest.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This means the maximum number of points they can potentially collect during the group phase is 24, if they were to somehow win all their games. The same principle will be applicable to all the other 35 teams present in the league phase.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Uefa is set to announce the exact order of the fixtures for each club on 31 August.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Knockout time</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Amid all these changes, the days and times of the Champions League will remain as they have been for decades now. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It will still be a midweek competition, played during the same slots as its predecessor. However, the new group phase is set to conclude on 29 January 2025, about a month later than the previous guise of the group stage. Teams that finish 25th and below will be immediately eliminated, with no second chances in the Europa League.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upon the conclusion of this stage of the competition, the top eight teams will advance straight to the round of 16. The sides who finish between ninth and 24th on the log will then have to play a “knockout playoff”.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This consists of eight two-legged knockout ties, where the winner of each of these matches will join the top eight from the group in the round of 16 proper. From then on, everything will proceed as it has in previous Champions Leagues. Until one team remains.</span>\r\n<h4><b>Why the change?</b></h4>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A couple of years ago, Europe’s top clubs attempted to create their own breakaway European Super League, accusing soccer administrators of greed while it is the clubs and players that make the sport. The attempted breakaway eventually collapsed.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, it lingered in the minds of Uefa – which believes that this new version of the competition will bring more excitement and pit the continent’s best against each other more frequently before the knockout rounds, as was the aim of the failed Super League.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The federation also believes the rejigged Champions League will allow for more corporate partnerships, increasing the cash flow within the European soccer system. </span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The thing is that from one point of view, we have clubs saying we cannot afford to pay the players and coaches any more. They are in financial difficulties,” Uefa president Aleksander Čeferin told Sky Sports.</span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“From the other point of view, players, of course, don’t want to play more matches. 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"summary": "The Union of European Football Associations launched the latest format of its premier club competition recently. Just how exactly does it work?\r\n",
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Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin. (File photo)
Liverpool manager Arne Slot in a heated moment during the English Premier League soccer match between Liverpool FC and Brentford FC in Liverpool, on 25 August 2024. (Photo: EPA-EFE/Adam Vaughan)