A Champions League format UEFA must consider

Pressure is on UEFA to change football calendar and Champions League format. Soccerissue would like to help

by

Some rights reserved by Sou'wester

Pressure is on UEFA to change football calendar and Champions League format.

So, Soccerissue tries to help with a suggestion of a new Champions League based on the NFL format.

Basic concept

- It should be a closed league for 4 years.

- Teams will be chosen based on their number of fans, number of global fan base, UEFA rankings, history, local market size, stadium, facilities, ownership structure etc.

- 40 teams will be divided into 4 regional conferences, compromised by 10 teams each.

- Each team will play 9 games against conference rivals and 7 games against teams from other conferences (with similar ranking). 16 “regular season” games overall. There won’t be two games against the same opponent each season (home and away format) – Just one, home or away. The following season, in the correspondent fixture, a home team will play away. Same as in the NFL.

- 16 teams (the best 4 from each conference) will qualify for knock out stage, which will be played in a one game knock out system (no home and away).

Main advantages of this format

- Each team will have a minimum of 8 home games, unlike today (3).

- Each game will be a lot more interesting because of sporting and regional importance; every game counts for the current season and next year’s rankings.

- The one game knock out system will give smaller clubs a chance to surprise – but also will make them a lot more interesting for neutral observers (That’s where the money is).

Regulations: 

- Revenues from media rights and sponsorship of such a league, will be shared between teams. Some of the revenues from match days will also be shared between 40 teams.

- Each team will have to register 25 players for the competition. 25 players that the sum of their contracts won’t pass a certain mark, i.e. 250M Euros. This means, teams will have to calculate very carefully which players will feature in the European tournament.

- Minimum wages budgets for teams’ 25 registered players will stand on 65m euros.

- The Super League will have to set up a pool of solidarity payments to football associations’ grass roots programs – 10% – 15% of revenues.

Super League B

- The Super League B will be a lot more regional than Super League A .

- There will be a Super League B, in which teams will compete for 4 years for a place in the Super League A.

- Every 4 years 8 new teams, that excelled in Super League B, will replace the worst 2 teams in each Super League A conference.

- Teams that will excel domestically for 4 years will get a place in Super League B, in place of the poorest throughout the 4 years.

Here is how the Super League A would look like (Suggestion) 

Northern Conference

Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Rangers, Celtic, FC Copenhagen, Ajax, Anderlecht

Western Conference

Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Atlético Madrid, Porto, Benfica, Lyon, Marseille, Paris Saint-Germain, Lille

Central Conference

FC Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke, Werder Bremen, Hamburg, Milan, Inter, Juventus, Roma, FC Basel

Eastern Conference

Zenit St. Petersburg, CSKA Moscow, Shakhtar Donetsk, Dynamo Kiev, Dinamo Zagreb, Fenerbahce , Galatasaray, Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Partizan Belgrade

An example for a Super League A schedule for a team

FC Barcelona will play Real Madrid (H), Valencia (A), Atlético Madrid (H), Porto (A), Benfica (H), Lyon (A), Marseille (H), Paris Saint-Germain (H), Lille (A), FC Bayern Munich (A), Inter, Milan (H), Manchester United (A), Arsenal (H), Chelsea (A) and Liverpool (H).

Here’s how Super League B will look like

Regions affiliated to Northern conference

Atlantic/ Benelux division (Teams from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Holland and Belgium)

Scandinavian division (Teams from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland)

Regions affiliated to Western conference

Iberian division: teams from Central/Southern Spain, Portugal

Pyrenees division: teams from Northern Spain, France

Regions affiliated to Central Conference

Danube division: teams from Romania, Hungary, Cezch Republic, and Slovakia

Alpines division: teams from Italy, Switzerland, Austria

Regions affiliated to Eastern conference

Balkan/Mediterranean division: teams from Serbia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Israel, Cyprus

Eurasian division: teams from Baltic, Poland, Ukraine, and Russia

Your thoughts will be appreciated

WHAT TO DO NOW?

Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

7 Comments

  1. Avnas added these pithy words on November 20, 2011 | Permalink

    Hi Ouriel

    this is very intersting.
    when do you think the super-league will start?
    do u think it will b close a year or two, far away (more than ten years) or something in the middle?

    Avner

  2. Ouriel added these pithy words on November 21, 2011 | Permalink

    I think that the big change will be in 2014. Maybe not that – but it will happen eventually
    thanks for the comment

  3. Avnas added these pithy words on December 1, 2011 | Permalink

    why do u think it will b on 2014?

    do u think any chance that the 2nd round of groups on champions league will b back
    (on euro 2016 Qualif – the way should b shorter)
    ?

  4. Abhishek added these pithy words on March 3, 2012 | Permalink

    This is so STUPID. The faster a competition gets over. the better it is. It would be so boring watching 8 matches :O. god who ever came up with this idea is a Primitive chimpanzee.Teams like Arsenal and barcelona and all will never be in the same group. This idea is a MUST NOT READ ONE. Hilarious.

  5. Amaterasu added these pithy words on March 29, 2012 | Permalink

    This is bullshit. More matches will surely kill the footballers. Football isn’t for brainless like NFL. This idea will kill European football & national leagues.
    As Abhisek said “A Must NOT Read” one.

  6. Jazir added these pithy words on April 5, 2012 | Permalink

    What A Dumb Idea………………………….!

  7. Daniel added these pithy words on July 18, 2012 | Permalink

    Yeah, this idea is absurd.

3 Trackbacks

  1. round thoughts » Handicapping the mouse against the elephant on December 7, 2011

    [...] The Manchester United – Basle games epitomizes the uselessness of the Champions League Group stage. [...]

  2. round thoughts » European football is not making enough money on January 30, 2012

    [...] In the NFL, the richest sports league in the world, every team plays only 16 regular season games. However, less is more. Change the Champions League to a more compact format and teams in it will make more money. Here is a suggested format. [...]

  3. round thoughts » A Champions League Format UEFA must consider – TAKE 2 on May 18, 2012

    [...] As you might remember, a few months ago we suggested a new Champions League format that will make more commercial and sporting sense: A Champions League format UEFA must consider [...]

 Subscribe in a reader