Sideline Story

How is the new league format changing Champions League dynamics?

The new UEFA Champions League season is underway with the brand new league format, as an expanded 36 teams are put into the same pool competing for the last 16 berths. How are the reforms altering the Champions League games? How will the increaed number of games impact the players amid an already packed game schedule? Also in this episode, we take a look at the performance of the high-profile teams after the first round.

Broadcast on:: 20 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to a sideline story on destination for sports, news, analysis, and discussions. I'm Yang Guang. Today we're going to take a look at the new game format of the UEFA Champions League. How does it influence the dynamics of the competition? Is it a successful reform by the European football governing body? To uncover this topic, I'm joined here with my co-hosts Tien Yu and Brandon Yates via video. All right, the new season of the UEFA Champions League is finally here. After the first week of action, we have this peak of how this new game format works. And to me, it doesn't really feel different compared with the previous editions so far because it's early days of the competition here. I guess as the group stage progresses, we will notice more obvious changes. But now 36 teams in the first phase. Each team will play eight different opponents. And the top eight teams will progress to the knockout stages directly and the team's ranking nice to 24th. We'll go to the playoffs, two lag playoffs to get a last 16 berth. Brandon, are you a fan of this new game format? Because I think UEFA is trying to add more uncertainties to the games. Yeah, I mean, I kind of understand it's to a certain extent. I think giving more chances to so-called smaller teams is never a bad thing. But that being said, I think what makes the Champions League special for me is that it's the best of the best. You want to see the best teams from across the European continent competing on the greater stage. So I don't know if we should be increasing the chances for smaller teams. I think it should just be kept an elite competition. But that being said, I guess the increase from 32 teams to 36 teams is not a massive increase. And in these early stages, we haven't really, like you said, Yang Guang, noticed too many changes as of yet. I think that will come as the matches progress because we're not going to see teams in these early stages playing each other more than once. We're going to see each team playing eight games. And if there is an upset result, some of those bigger teams won't have a chance to get a better result against a so-called smaller team that they lost against. And I think that new league format, we only eight teams progress. I think that's going to change the competition greatly. So yeah, I think it's going to create a lot of unpredictability, which I think in the Champions League is always a good thing. Particularly, I think in the early rounds, in these initial stages, I think we might see one or two surprising results. And then that larger team won't be able to make up for a surprise loss. But when we get to the latter stages of this league stage, I think that's when it's going to get less competitive, because I think the bigger teams will be a lot more-- they'll have a greater chance of being consistent. So I think when it gets down to the final eight, I think we will see the big teams that we expect to get to the last 16, the quarter finals, the semifinals, et cetera. I think that will be when the unpredictability element of this new format ends. So yeah, there's more teams, there's more matches, there's more chances for shock results in these early stages, I suppose. So I guess that's the biggest change, is that there's more teams, there's less repetitive games, so it could be quite interesting. It should be interesting to see, as the competition progresses, how this new system is implemented, and how fans react to it, and how teams react to it. Right, the Champions League now literally a league right now. Because previously, it's a tournament, like a Euro, like World Cup, but it's now 30, 16 league. Tien, do you like this new game format? Is it making the Champions League more entertaining to watch? Well, for me, and for other football fans, I think the new game format proved to be a boon for us. Because first of all, we get to enjoy more games. That's the most direct benefit from the new game format. Instead of having to endure those tedious and one-sided games in the group stage format, now we are able to enjoy the replays of some classic battles in the league stage, like Bayern Munich versus Barcelona, and Liverpool versus AC Milan. And also, thanks to the new format, we get to have the chance to watch the re-wrong of Champions League finals in the recent three editions, namely Real Madrid versus Dortmund, Man City versus Inter Milan, and Real versus Liverpool. Yeah, I'm just curious how this draw is made, because it's like a man-made draw. It seems like the draw was made by the computer. Yeah, AI, right. And just hearing the names of these clubs makes me feel eager to follow these games. And also, since the eight highest ranking teams in the league stage will directly earn the ticket to the round of 16, I think the new rules will act as a big stimulus for the powerhouses to go all-out starting from the league stage as... From day one, right? Yeah, from day one, as each game, each point, or even each go, will leave an impact on the ranking and prospects of a certain team. So, I think there will be more higher quality games. And for clubs, the new format will definitely bring more money, more thrilling games, and especially games between these elite teams will bring more viewership, higher ticket sales and more sponsorship deals. But on the other hand, as Brandon mentioned, for players, a more packed schedule will lead to some fatigue issues. And we're already seeing injuries happening to a bunch of players across different leagues as they are too exhausted, and overloaded to cope with an increasing amount of games, both from clubs and their national teams. And I think while football fans get to enjoy more beautiful games, the health condition of professional football players also needs to be taken into serious consideration for the organisers. Yeah, so there are some pros and cons. So, from my perspective or from the general fans' perspective, I think the new game format introduces more games and more matchups, because in the previous group stage, four teams in one group play in home and away games, it's sometimes boring, because especially when the teams qualifying for the last 16 were set, the final round or the final two rounds became meaningless, but now 36 teams in one ranking system get started to look interesting. And we are about to see more top teams facing each other very early on, like this season we will see Bayern Munich versus Barcelona, versus PSG in the group stage. Real Madrid will play Liverpool a-simulant and Brujia Dortmund in the first phase. I love to watch those duels early on. But as you said, from the players' perspective, the new game format may be a quite big burden for them, because previously they only needed to play six group games. Now eight, some of them even need to play ten games before reaching the last 16. So, it's quite a little bit too much for players who are already experiencing a packed game schedule, including international duties. Don't forget, next year we will have the inaugural expanded FIFA club World Cup, so... I feel bad for them. Yeah, me too. So, I think players, some players will be troubled by this intense game schedule, and some of them, as you said, might experience injuries, meet with through the season. But anyway, despite these concerns, we've launched this new game format. Brandon, where do you think this reform by the European football governing body comes from? Well, I think, you know, it's all about money at the end of the day. They want to see more games, and they want to, you know, create more excitement around the Champions League, but, you know, like Tiam, you mentioned, seeing some of those classic matches more consistently and more early on in the competition. And, you know, I did initially feel sorry for some of these bigger teams and their players playing more matches, but then when you look at what they're earning per peak, I don't really feel sorry for any of them. But look, you know, at the end of the day, we don't want to see too much fatigue. We don't want to see any injury. So it'll be interesting to see how some of these bigger teams that play so many matches manage this increased workload. While we may see more high profile teams playing each other more consistently, I think initially that will be very exciting, but I'm not necessarily sure I'm a believer that more games featuring more big teams makes it more exciting to watch, because I think something that also makes the Champions League really special, particularly when you get to the quarterfinal, semi-final stages, is that you have to wait to see some of those big teams finally playing against each other and it kind of builds anticipation. So, yeah, I think we will see more competitive games and more high profile games and some upsets with, you know, those smaller teams playing eight matches and only having the chance to play some of those bigger teams once. But then when you see some of those bigger teams playing each other so regularly in the early stages of the competition, I think it might have one negative might be that when we get to the quarterfinal, semi-final stages, we would have already seen some of these teams play against each other. So it might make those latter stage games less special potentially. Yeah, maybe with the new game format, UEFA is giving out the best of the best too early. But to me, this change by UEFA actually rooted in the threats from the so-called European Super League initiated by those European powerhouses, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus. UEFA must have known that if no changes were made to elevate their flagship competition to the next level, to make the top teams face each other, more often they could be replaced someday in the future. So UEFA had this full crisis awareness. But meantime, as Brandon said, more games means more money, more income. Stats already show that earnings from the Champions League, the Europa League, the Conference League and the Super Cup this season increased by 1 billion euros from 3.5 billion euros last year. So definitely this new game format is very attractive for the investors. What do you think? Well, yeah, the last time UEFA changed the format of the Champions League was in 2003. They devised the classic group stage to knock out stage format, and they have kept it for over 20 years. And now as you mentioned, as European football has been evolving constantly, and the Champions League is playing an increasing vital role, different parties in the league are having different needs now. The powerhouses want to maintain their positions with stable appearances in the league. The smaller clubs need to have more chances to compete. The broadcasting companies long for more viewership while fans, they hope to have more thrilling games to watch and talk about on social media. So to address the different needs from the clubs to individuals who have launched this new round of reform of the Champions League, I think it's definitely going to bring more vitality into this tournament. But like we said, how to reduce the burden of the players still on the agenda and the organisers need to come up with a solution for their fatigue issue. One CD player, I can't remember who that was, but he mentioned that if the players will play full games one year, there will be 85 games per year for some of the players. Yeah, that's just crazy. Just imagine even the NBA players, they only need to play 82 games, regular season games per year. So that's crazy for football players. But let's go to the games themselves. As I said, we've seen the first round action, a lot of exciting games. The big powers didn't reserve their strengths early on. For me, Bayern Munich's performance was absolutely convincing a 9-2 victory against Dinamo Zagreb. You can say his smile. Yeah, it's a dream start. It's a dream start both for the Bayern players and for me. I think Bayern totally dominated the game on the offensive side, though they did expose a lot of problems on the defensive side. But I have to say, Oli C's performance was surprisingly good. He really gives Bayern more option on the attacking part of the game. But it's still early on in the season. We know, at least I know, that Bayern had suffered some injury plagues in the latter stages of the season in the past few years. So hopefully they can keep these healthy squads through next year and next the summer. And I think they have a big chance to go deep into the competition. Brandon, any teams or players that impressed you the most in after the first round? Well, as a Manchester United fan, I'm feeling very, very jealous of the two of you because your two teams Bayern Munich and Real Madrid have gotten off to a dream start so far in these early stages of the Champions League. So I think being a Bayern or Real Madrid fan at the moment, well, ever actually is just always a fantastic thing to be. But right now, I think it's really, really good. And I think as a United fan, I think I'm just less and less interested in the Champions League because it just looks like such a distant dream for United these days. But yeah, Yang Guang, like you mentioned, Bayern are looking really, really impressive at this stage. I think Elise has added a different dynamic to the team and just adds so much creativity for them. Harry Kane is looking absolutely on fire. And I think that his experience, determination and class is going to be very, very important for Bayern Munich this season. I think he's so desperate to win a title, whether it be the Bundesliga or the Champions League. I think having someone like him that's as motivated as he is and hopefully as injury-free as he is, I think he's going to be critical in the Champions League this season and someone that definitely needs to be looked out for. Liverpool also impressed me against AC Milan. I think they were all down and then came back to win 3-1. So I think Liverpool also surprised me a little bit. They're also looking strong in the Champions League and they're also looking fairly strong domestically at the moment. The city intergame was interesting. I think that was a repeat of the 20-23 final. Yeah. And yeah, so it was a null, null draw. But I think it posed a lot of questions and was quite interesting from a couple of different dynamics. I think Inter looked incredibly strong defensively against one of the best, if not the best attacking team in the world. So I think that was quite impressive to see. With City, I think they can be very proud of themselves for the amount of chances that they created against such a strong defensive unit like Inter. But I think what is concerning for them is that when Holland isn't firing, they don't seem to have that many options to come in and provide an alternative goal-scoring threat. So I think the loss of Julian Alvarez is already looking a little bit troublesome for Manchester City, although it is early days in the competition. I watched a video, an interview from Pep Guardiola at the other day, and he said he played 11 years as a professional player, and he scored 11 goals throughout those 11 years. And Holland just used four or five games to score nine goals. So he made that comparison. It's very interesting. It just tells how efficient Holland can be. But also, City can just rely on Holland on goals scoring. If Holland had a quiet night, then it could be a troublesome night for a City. So I guess City vs Inter Milan, that game told some aspect of this narration. But Tien Yu, about your team, did Real Madrid deliver the best performance you had expected? Well, I'd like to skip Real Madrid for a little while, because I've got to say I was really impressed by the performance of Inter Milan, because even though it's a goalist draw, like Brandon mentioned, it was still a very intense game, as there are over 30 shots during the whole game. And as always, Inter did a great job in defense. The whole defense line was acting like they share a brain, and the coordination between them was really beautiful, and they are not just focusing solely on defense. Actually, they were taking advantage of every possible chance in the game, even though they do lack the ability to convert these chances into real goals. Aside from their disappointing attacking performance, Inter seems always able to find a reliable goalkeeper from the likes of Samir Hadanovich, to Andrea Onana, to now Jan Sommer. And Sommer has been doing incredibly well in the game, I've got to say. It's really hard to tell that he's already 36 years old now right now. Apart from Inter, yeah, I think Bayern Munich. Thank you. They have showed their firepower. It seems like Bayern is really keen on playing games with big scores. A2 versus Barcelona, 7-2 versus Hotspur, and 5-1 over Arsenal. And now 9-2 over Dinamo Zagreb. I think the happiest thing for Bayern fans like Yang Guang, in a game we'll be seeing Harry Kane at his best state. Also, like Brandon mentioned, I think Liverpool is also having a resurgence from three-nail over Man United in a Premier League. Sorry, Brandon. Thank you. To the 3-1 wing against AC Milan, I think no-one can really underestimate the Reds in the new season. Cody Gackball has been amazing since the start of the season, and Luis Diaz also seemed to have been activated. So I think the new season looks pretty promising for Liverpool right now. Yeah. You were too humble to escape Real Madrid in this conversation. Don't worry, I'm going to mention that. Yeah, but talking about Real Madrid, the two-time defending champion and the most successful team in Champions League history, I think they were already title favourites even before the Champions League season started. And now with Kilei Mbappe on board, I really don't think any team can have any chance of overcoming this really big barrier in front of their road. Brandon, do you agree? Yeah, I do. But I think this new Champions League format might hinder Real Madrid at this point, because I think squad depth going into the latter stages of the competition could potentially be an issue for Real Madrid, because I think they're starting 11 and even their bench is world-class. But I think one or two injuries could really derail Real Madrid. So look, I think as things stand, they're definitely looking like the strongest team, but I think that they really have to manage the workload of their players, particularly their ageing players. I think of Madrid, for example, that all needs to be managed very, very carefully. Look, I think besides Real Madrid, I think City and Bayern are looking like the strongest teams at the moment. I know City had that goal to straw against Inter, but I still think that they are undoubtedly the strongest team in Europe alongside Real Madrid. And I think Bayern have just made a statement, and they're also looking incredibly, incredibly strong. And yeah, like we mentioned, I think Liverpool are also, like Tian Yu said, are having a resurgence this season and also looking incredibly strong, even under their new manager on a slot. And I think Barcelona, look, it's still early days in the season, but I think in La Liga, they are looking incredibly strong under Hansi Flick. And I think that they're also going to surprise a few pundits this season. So I think Basa could also be a team that could potentially have a very strong run in the Champions League this season as well. But I think when we get to the latter stages, if Real Madrid do get to the stages, I think we're also going to see Bayern Munich and City having a real run for the title. Right. Tian Yu as a Real fan yourself, you must have more natural worries about your team. Yeah, I do have. So from your perspective, which teams can start for Real as this season progress? Well, to be honest, as a Madrid fan, I am not very optimistic about the team's prospect this season. Of course. Like we talked about in the previous episode, I think Real Madrid still hasn't figured out the problem of how to really fit Coli Mbappe into the squad. We've talked about for so many times. Yeah, even though Madrid just achieved a 3-1 victory over Schottgaard, we can clearly see that Mbappe was not in his best forms and he just wasted so many chances in the game. Position still seemed to be in collision with his teammates. Especially with now, Andrew rising in the squad. I think he kind of complicated things up front. That's a happy problem as we mentioned. And also after the retirement of Tony Cruz, I think the controlling power of the midfield was waning rapidly. As Luca Medrich, like Brenda mentioned, he was aging and he just became out of form. There seemed to be no one that can really replace the row of Cruz. And we can't just rely on Jude Bellingham to do all the dirty jobs all the time. So I think with these problems still existing in Madrid's squad, I think a lot of the teams actually have the potential to threaten Real Madrid's title defense. Bayern Munich, Man City and Liverpool are all looking quite strong at the current stage and they stand a lot of chance in taking their revenge against Madrid. To me, Real Madrid is obviously a different team compared with what they do in the domestic league in Spain. Let's see if Real Madrid can make this triple Champions League crown again. Fingers crossed. It would be belonging to other teams in this year. Perhaps one or two underdogs can stand us all. But with that, we end this episode of Sightline Story. Thank you so much for joining us. Subscribe to Sightline Story wherever you listen to podcasts. For more information, you can also check our website, Radio.CGTN.com. See you next week. [MUSIC]