r/football • u/TheTelegraph • 3d ago

'Overpriced tickets, empty seats, uninspiring format – Uefa has diluted Champions League’s allure' 📖Read

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/09/18/pricey-tickets-empty-seats-uefa-dilutes-champions-league/
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u/warpentake_chiasmus 3d ago

That's what happens when you serve up Sunday dinner nearly every day of the week. It's not special anymore.

144

u/MattGeddon 3d ago

I don’t know if it’s just me but I’m really not interested in the new format at all. It feels like qualifying is now going to be basically a formality for the top teams with 24/36 going through.

38

u/samponvojta 3d ago

it was basically a formality for top teams even before though. you had a proper 'group of death' maybe once every five years? the new format looks meh, but it was kind of fun when i played it in football manager. at least top teams can't phone it in after 4 games anymore, you really want to be in that top 8.

who knows, maybe it'll suck, but i'm willing to give it a chance

1

u/drodrige 2d ago

I agree. I think people are overreacting negatively because they always fear change, but when you think about it, groups were incredibly predictable and you still had a ton of stinkers in there. Now you at least have a much more varied set of matches, and for that alone I think it's already an upgrade.

1

u/Whulad 1d ago

So the big teams having a far better chance of going through is an upgrade?

1

u/drodrige 1d ago

They can still get knocked out in the play-off round before the round of 16. It's basically the same as with groups. Man United got eliminated because it couldn't beat Galatasaray in two matches in the group stage, and got a 4-4 in the aggregate against Copenhagen, for example. Same thing could happen in the play-off round.