MY ACCOUNT
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin is in favour of introducing a new ‘final four’ format in the Champions League from the 2024-25 season.
Under the current format, teams play home and away in the semi-finals for the right to meet in the final.
However, a ‘final eight’ event was trialled in 2020 out of necessity due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with each quarter-final and semi-final played over one leg in host city Lisbon, which also staged the final.
Bayern Munich went on to win the tournament and the experiment was considered a hit, with big audience figures recorded for the seven matches.
Ceferin previously indicated he would be open to reverting to a similar format permanently, and the Slovenian has now confirmed he has already consulted various club presidents.
“We haven’t yet discussed this properly because of the pandemic, which has taken up our day-to-day focus,” he told French outlet Le Journal Du Dimanche.
“But my opinion is that it would be great. It should be more competitive and more interesting for the fans.
“I have discussed it with some club presidents, such as [Paris Saint-Germain chief Nasser] Al-Khelaifi, and they are in agreement.
“It’s a simple equation to solve – we would just need to compensate clubs for the revenue they would lose from hosting the semi-final matches. That is possible.
“It would come in for the 2024-25 season at the earliest. But I doubt it could be done that quickly.”
However, while Ceferin is open to change in UEFA’s flagship club competition, he reiterated FIFA’s proposed plans to make the World Cup a biennial competition make no sense.
“I’m sure that won’t happen because it’s a complete nonsense,” he said.
“It’s a populist project that would destroy football. It goes against all the principles of our sport, and those of the Olympic Games.
“It’s incredible that a football organisation can propose that their players – on top of an already heavy schedule – should play a month-long tournament every summer.
“And just imagine how it would eat into women’s football. Alongside South America, we have said that it won’t work. Without us, it would no longer be a World Cup.”
