The Champions League’s new 36-team format has been in place for the first time this season but some changes have been floated before the end of the current campaign
European football’s governing body UEFA is weighing up changes to the Champions League’s knockout structure, it has been claimed. This season is the first to feature a new 36-team format, but some tweaks could be made going into the 2025-26 campaign.
In the current format, a team’s ranking in the league phase will determine their seeding for the play-off round. The top eight teams in the standings get a bye to the round of 16, where they take off a play-off winner and enjoy home advantage in the second leg.
This season’s draw for the later rounds has removed that advantage, though. Home advantage is decided by random draw after the round of 16, so teams who performed better in the group stage could find themselves forced to play the home leg first at the quarter-final or semi-final stage.
Arsenal have suffered under the system this season. The Gunners finished third in the league phase, meaning they got home advantage for the second leg of their round of 16 meeting with PSV Eindhoven, but they had to play at home first when they met Real Madrid in the quarters.
It was a similar situation for Barcelona, who were at ome for the first leg of their quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund despite finishing second in the league phase. However, it could change next season in one of a number of tweaks.
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According to Bild, second-leg home advantage for higher-ranked teams is one of three potential changes. The German publication reports that criticism of the current format has arrived from Arsenal.
Despite being denied home advantage in the second leg, Arsenal were able to book their place in the final four. They won 3-0 at home to Real Madrid in the first leg of their quarter-final, before completing an aggregate victory by winning 2-1 at the Bernabeu.
The other changes being mulled include doing away with extra-time in knockout games, sending ties straight to penalties if the scores are level on aggregate, and keeping clubs from the same country apart until the quarter-finals. Bild suggests the Club Competitions Committee could decide on the changes following a May 30 meeting, with proposals then put before UEFA’s executive committee before they can be brought into being.
The country protection element has become a factor after changes were made to the previous Champions League format. Under the old system, with eight groups of four teams followed by a knockout stage, teams from the same country were kept apart until the quarter-finals.
That changed with the expansion of the competition, though. Teams from the same domestic league have met in the play-off round and the round of 16 this season.
Paris Saint-Germain, who face Arsenal in the semi-finals, overcame fellow Ligue 1 side Brest in the play-off before getting the better of Liverpool and Aston Villa in the following two rounds. Real Madrid and Bayern Munich both beat domestic rivals in the round of 16, though both were subsequently eliminated in the quarter-finals.
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