UEFA announced significant changes to their flagship Champions League
on Friday Aug 26,2016, saying they had managed to "keep it in the family" after
staving off the threat of a breakaway league by Europe's top clubs.
From 2018/19 season, the top four European leagues -- currently Spain,Germany ,England and Italy-- will each be guaranteed 4 places in the group stage, UEFA competitions director Giorgio Marchetti told
"From the very beginning, the feeling was the ideal solution for
everybody would be a solution in the family," he told
From 2018/19 season, the top four European leagues -- currently Spain,Germany ,England and Italy-- will each be guaranteed 4 places in the group stage, UEFA competitions director Giorgio Marchetti told
Stung by criticism
that the competition has become too predictable, UEFA emphasised that
it would continue to be open for teams from Europe's smaller national
leagues although the number of places set aside for them would drop from
five to four.
Europe's top clubs had discussed the possibility of forming a breakaway
Super League but UEFA's acting general secretary Theodor Theodoridis
played down the threat.
Under the present
system, the top three leagues have three places each while their
fourth-placed teams must play off over two legs for a place in the group
stage.
The fourth ranked league, currently Italy, have only two guaranteed places plus one in the playoff round.
UEFA uses a complicated coefficient to determine the rankings of the national leagues.
Marchetti said the format itself would remain the same with a qualifying
stage, followed by a 32-team group stage and then a knockout contest.
No comments:
Post a Comment