The reporter reported coldly With the new version of the Champions League officially entering the 1/8 finals, the controversy over the advantages and disadvantages of the old and new versions of the Champions League has reached a preliminary conclusion. Although the new version of the Champions League has complaints that there are too many games and is not conducive to the health of the players, the new version of the Champions League has more suspense, the result of the game is more dramatic, and the club has more benefits, which is the consensus of all parties. Although the results of the restructuring have not fully met expectations, at least UEFA officials and participating clubs have generally recognized the success of the new format.

For UEFA, clubs, football industry stakeholders and fans, the new Champions League has been a success, at least in the broader direction. More games, greater suspense of qualifying, more viewers and attention, and greater commercial value. UEFA hopes that the new version of the Champions League will compress the breeding space of the European Super League and continue to remain competitive in the confrontation with FIFA.

Qualifying is more suspenseful, and there are more goals

In the traditional Champions League group stage, most games are often criticized for the disparity in strength and weakness, and most of the qualifying places lack suspense. Last season's last edition of the Champions League, for example, had as many as 13 teams qualified for the round of 16 before the final round of the group stage, making most of the final round of the group stage uncompetitive. When UEFA advertised the new Champions League format, it stressed that the Swiss format would make "every game count". Each round can change the fate of a team, creating a competitive environment where each round can create a suspense of qualifying.

Indeed, before the start of the final round of the new version of the Champions League stage, only Liverpool and Barcelona of the 36 participating teams can ensure that they enter the round of 16, and there are still as many as 27 teams who are doing their best to at least enter the knockout round, and only 2 of the 18 games in the final round have nothing to do with qualification, and at least 12 games have scored more than 3 goals.

Judging from the results of this round alone, it is indeed enjoyable: Manchester City, the Champions League champions two years ago, reversed the weak team Club Brugge in the final round to secure the play-off qualification. Barcelona was held to a draw by Serie A dark horse Atalanta and missed out on the top spot in the league, while Real Madrid, who have won the title 15 times, is only 11th and can only participate in the play-offs. Serie A giants AC Milan's hopes of finishing in the top eight and progressing through to the round of 16 were shattered by Dinamo Zagreb.

Most of the qualification suspense was left in the final round, which made fans more interested in the game. UEFA policymakers have already decided that the new format has successfully solved the problem of the old format losing the suspense of qualifying for the group stage early. Scottish legend McAllister said what many fans said: "I can no longer sit on the sofa and watch a game without suspense, I want to go to the scene to feel the excitement of the last round of the battle for qualification." "In the old version of the Champions League group stage, there were few big clubs in the early stages, which made at least one-third of the group stage lose its competitive value. Even the fight for top spot in the group becomes pointless, as the top two teams in the group will both advance to the round of 16. The new version of the Champions League not only increases the number of matchups between the giants, but also runs through the entire league stage. For most fans who want to see more strong confrontations, it is naturally a benefit that the old version of the Champions League could not give. The European giants have always wanted to increase the number of times they play each other, and in turn, increase their revenue, and the new version of the Champions League has met the demands of the giants by increasing the number of matches in the league stage.

In addition, the suspense of qualifying continued throughout the league stage, and the participating teams played offensive football to increase the number of goals. The final round of 18 matches in the new format produced 64 goals, the second-most goals scored in a single round in Champions League history, behind only the 66 goals scored in the 16 matches in the first round on 16 September 1970. Last season's Champions League group averaged 3.19 goals per game, and the new version of the Champions League stage scored a total of 470 goals in 144 games, an average of 3.26 goals per game, of which only 54 games scored fewer than 3 goals, accounting for 37.5% of all games, lower than the old version of the Champions League last season (40.6%). More goals add to the spectacle of the game and also allow more spectators to enter the stadium.

The most profitable is the club

UEFA has set a far higher prize money for the new version of the Champions League, which has surged from 2 billion euros to 2.467 billion euros in three years, and the participation fee for each team has reached 18.85 million euros, an increase of 3 million compared to last season. In addition, the bonus for competitive performance has increased by 50%, and the group stage winning award and promotion award are more generous, which will provide "double incentives" to the team in terms of bonus and competition system. The market pool and the points coefficient bonus in the past 10 years of European competition have been combined into a "value bonus", although it has been reduced from 900 million to 860 million, but the decline is not large, and the new version of the Champions League hopes that the participating teams will go all out through each game and get more bonuses.

The new Champions League stage adds two more matches and a 24-16 play-off to add more TV broadcasts, matchday and commercial revenue for the participating teams. The new competition system gives the giants more "room for error" and minimizes the loss of the giants from missing the knockout round. Although the number of participating teams increased by four, the number of eliminated teams decreased by four. The addition of a play-off for teams ranked 9-24 could give the giants who missed out on the top eight still have a chance to reach the round of 16. The new version of the Champions League has created an unprecedented "extreme suspense", but at the same time, it has "backed" for the vast majority of giants.

The new version of the Champions League's "bottom-up" competition system design, although there have been many upsets in this year's actual combat, has basically achieved the "data" effect on the whole. According to statistics from Opta data, only five of the top 24 teams in the Opta Champions League this season failed to qualify. Manchester City, whose season performance was sluggish due to injury, was still able to enter the play-offs by defeating three low-grade weak teams to ensure that they received at least 60 million euros in income, which is a typical case of the giants' "bottom-up" format. In the old Champions League era, 10 or 11 points was the lowest score for six group stage progressions. And in 2013, Napoli, who had 12 points, failed to even qualify. However, Manchester City, Sporting and Club Brugge, who have played two more games in the new version of the Champions League, can all enter the play-offs with a low score of 11 points.

Of course, the substantial increase in competitive prize money has benefited not only the five major league giants, but also the participating small and medium-sized clubs. The addition of teams will inevitably lead to more upsets, such as Aston Villa, Brest and Monaco in Pot 4, which have only been three in Pot 4 in the previous four seasons. The most typical is Celtic, who have won only one of their 12 group games in the previous two seasons, won two of the first four games of the season and reached the play-offs.

The substantial increase in prize money is enough for the participating clubs in the European small and medium-sized leagues to completely improve the financial situation of the clubs, and thus enhance the strength of the team. From this point of view, the football "helping effect" of the new version of the Champions League is quite similar to that of the European Nations League.

More benefits, but also disadvantages

After the expansion of the Champions League, the number of league games has increased from six to eight, and UEFA has tried to create a variety of opponents to increase the attractiveness of the competition. As many as 98 of the 144 league games (68 per cent) this season have met for the first time in the Champions League, far surpassing the previous record of 71 (45.2 per cent) set in all competitions in the 1999/2000 season. The new opponents not only add to the freshness of the fans, but also bring uncertainty about the game process because they have never played each other, which naturally increases the suspense of the result and more goals.

Of course, the expansion of the new season has increased the number of weaker teams, and it is not without its drawbacks. The randomness of the Swiss round format increases the likelihood of big team matchups, as well as the number of strong and weak teams that face each other, resulting in a significant increase in the number of matches with strong and weak disparities. Bayern Munich (9-2) and Borussia Dortmund (7-1) set a record for winning more than three goals in 42 games in the Champions League this season. The previous most, 2022/23 season, saw only 30 games with more than three goals scored. On average, one out of every 3.4 games has won by more than three goals, the highest since 2003/04.

There have been just 18 draws in 144 games in the new Champions League stage, the lowest percentage of draws in the Champions League group stage since 2000/01. The reduction in the number of draws means fewer evenly matched games, partly proving that the gap between Champions League teams is widening. In the league this season, the six teams with the lowest Opta power ranking were all wiped out, and seven of the bottom nine teams were eliminated. Although Brest and Celtic, who are ranked below 24th, will advance, it is also in line with the probability for the overall pattern of European football. For the Champions League, which has been basically monopolized by giants in recent years, the new format has not narrowed the gap in the strength of European football.

In addition to the "Matthew effect" of the Champions League strength gap, because the number of matches has increased, the new version of the Champions League has increased the travel fatigue and injury risk for the participating players, and the fans have also increased the cost of watching the games. Clubs that have reached the round of 16 or even further through the play-offs have added four games to the winter calendar in January and February, which has already tightened the schedule of domestic cup competitions and increased the likelihood of injuries to players.

Fortunately, at least this year, the number of direct serious injuries has not increased significantly compared to the previous version of the Champions League.

As for the fans, in addition to the additional burden of road travel compared to the old Champions League, there is also the added cost of higher home ticket prices. Despite the general backlash from fans, most Champions League clubs have raised their prices. Of course, there is still room for UEFA and the participating clubs to offset the negative effects on the part of players and fans. The Europa League is reducing the number of cup games for the new version of the Champions League to relieve pressure on players; The giants can easily pocket hundreds of millions of euros in Champions League bonuses, and they are also objectively likely to make certain concessions to the cost of watching the game.