There could be major changes on the way to how you spend your Tuesday and Wednesday nights watching football.
The Champions League is a bloated beast, and it seems that Uefa is looking to put it on a slim line diet, perhaps from the 2018-19 season.
It currently sees 32 teams begin life in the competition proper in the autumn, but according to newspaper reports this morning, it may be cut to just half that.
The Guardian newspaper is suggesting that Uefa is considering the group stages be reduced to just 16 sides, which is in response to concerns from clubs outside of the Premier League who are worried at the English top flight’s influence in European football.
That could see an end to the third or fourth place English club side taking a spot in the qualifying stages of the competition while other European leagues may also lose out on some of their spots.
The concern among club’s across Europe outside of England is the enormous money that all 20 Premier League sides will take home from the new TV deal which comes into play from next season.
The large injection of cash is understood to be a major issue for teams across Europe, which will see even the lowest of Premier League strugglers earn more money than some of their top European rivals in Germany, France and Portugal.
There is also a suggestion that there could be some earlier rounds of the competition organised outside of a top 16 of seeds – drawn from eight league champions and their runner-up – who would then qualify to play the top seeds in two mini-groups.
The idea that the Champions League could become two super mini-leagues would result in a group stage of 14 games, which would lead to massive increase in tv money, but no decision on a possible revamp is expected until next year at least.
