Champions League rule change to have big impact on Liverpool but Jurgen Klopp nightmare avoided

UEFA is ditching plans to award two Champions League spots for sides based on their historical performance in the tournament, instead favouring a format that focuses on current success in European competition.

It was announced last year UEFA was considering a controversial proposal to support sides with a high-ranking coefficient, that had failed to qualify for the competition on merit but would benefit from their past contributions. Manchester United and AS Roma are two examples of teams who would fall under this category if that rule had come into force, with both missing out on a Champions League finish this term.

Instead, according to the Times, the European Club Association (ECA) has agreed on a system that will see two places go to the countries of sides who perform best in European competitions in each given season. England and the Netherlands are reportedly the two nations that would have reaped the rewards of this approach had it been rolled out this season, with the fifth-placed team in the Premier League (currently Tottenham Hotspur) joining the top four in the Champions League.

This will form part of the ‘Swiss model’ that will begin at the start of the 2024/25 campaign, with the number of teams competing in the Champions League increasing from 32 sides to 36 and therefore an extra four qualifying positions up for grabs.

Group stage matches are one of the major changes that will be witnessed, with teams now playing eight matches at this stage of the competition instead of the current number of six. The original suggestion was that this would rise to ten, though a compromise has been reached during today’s UEFA meeting in Austria.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp

is among the individuals likely to be pleased an agreement of eight has been reached, having expressed his disapproval when quizzed on the new 2024/25 format last year. “The super league is off the table, good, very good. But the new champions league is now not ‘oh great, now let’s do that,'” said the German.

“They showed me the whole idea, and I said I don’t like it as there’s 10 games instead of six and I’ve no idea where we will put them in. Maybe UEFA will ask for a cup competition to get cancelled or have 18 teams in the league.”

Sides will now be placed in a single league table, as opposed to eight groups of four clubs, and will contest in eight matches versus teams of different ranks to determine who progresses to the knockout phase of the competition. The remaining two Champions League spots will go to France or Portugal (one spot), and to the national champion of the league which does not automatically qualify (another spot).

There was also talk of two-legged semi-finals being scrapped in favour of a ‘week of football’, which would see the semi-finals and final over a single week in the same city. No official confirmation has been provided at this stage regarding whether or not this will be pushed forward.