New CL/EL/CO format

[matt]

A year ago i created a poll asking for your opinion on the new format.
The votes were evenly split between positive opinions (12), negative opinions (11) and neutral ones (15).


Now that half of the league stage is gone, i'm curious to see the results again.

I will write my opinion later on.

[rpo.castro]

GS used to be a bit boring but I would get my schedule to watch it and sometimes switching between 2 or 3 matches.
Around MD4 things would get hot. I would watch all the goals and keep record of standings, who is struggling who is out.

This season I started by watching it and not liking, forgetting in 2nd MD, watching just 1 match in MD3 and I watched sporting because tv happened to be left in that channel. Wednesday I didn't bother to watch any match and just watched something from Netflix. Not watching the goals either. If news bulletin shows it, ok, if not, ok too.

I feel like this format just killed all the fun. Plus I am always mixing up which team will still play against Porto and which will play Braga.
I didn't like but now hate is the right feeling.

[Greyn]

I voted for the "more negative than positive" option.

What I dislike mostly is that there is no classic match and revenge between two teams. This was a basic rule of European competitions which should have not been broken no matter what.

I also dislike the fact that a single match has lesser value in terms of being eliminated. Real Madrid lost twice in 4 matches, but hard to say they are in danger of being eliminated in the CL. While with the old format they would be in trouble now.

I also liked drop outs of 3rd placed teams in the CL and EL. I think it was a better solution than post league phase play offs.

[Dniprovec]

I am neutral and I think I was more positive than negative before (but maybe it was under the assumption that it would be a true Swiss system).

Positives: It is fresh and I am curious to follow it. It feels like it gives more spotlight to somewhat underdog teams and creates some illusion of a bigger (than it is in reality) upset. Due to it being only 8 matches, it seems like play-offs and 1/8 will be more unpredictable than it was in the older format.

Negatives: 8 groups - were like 8 mini-tournaments, each with its intrigue and story. Now any outcome of the match doesn't mean much as you can't properly assess what it means in the grand scheme of things. There is a strong lack of the sense of urgency, I feel the key battles will be in the last back to back weeks on MD7 and MD8 and even then they'll be a few matches for top 8 or top 24. I think having top 16 to qualify instead of 24 would raise stakes higher and upset would become bigger and things would get real very soon. Now it is really we can name 19/24 clubs that almost guaranteed qualification after 4 match days, and then 5/7 there still might. With 16 clubs, there is a now 50/50 chance for Real at this point, which creates an intrigue. It is do or die for PSG now. Will Monaco and Brest still make it? That being said, I always liked that 3rd places were rewarded with Europa League consolation spot. So I'd keep 17-24 places for EL qualification, just for the lower clubs to still have something to fight for. KO rounds then would be 9-16 EL vs 17-24 CL, 9-16 CO vs 17-24 EL.

[Shing]

In general, I like the idea of "Swiss", as I like teams facing more different teams instead of facing the same teams twice.

I do not like increasing from 6 matches to 8. I also do not like 24 out of 36 teams advancing with a big play-offs round.

I am not sure about the league draw. Previously, teams in the same pot do not face each other but now they do. So it is possible that a team in higher pot get tougher opponents in terms of seeding than a team in lower pot.

If I have the right to do it, I may keep "Swiss", but teams divided into 4 pots, each team play 6 matches (2 from each pot other than own pot), top 15 advance to round of 16, 16-19 advance to play-offs which is two round single leg to compete for the final spot. I think this may be more exciting, but UEFA will not like this because there are less matches.

[krdel]

I do not like it but i also did not like the old format, so...

I prefer knock-out system, it is the best, make it a double elimination if you must. This new system is made just for profit. The league competition where each team does not play each team makes no sense in sport. Except maybe the true swiss system, which this is not of course, because there you get new pairs after each round according to results. Here you get nothing after each round, just a mess. The point is just to have more "big matches", even if they bear no meaning. It reminds me on American sports or that sketch by Mitchell and Webb. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MusyO7J2inM

[anty1975]

I also liked drop outs of 3rd placed teams in the CL and EL. I think it was a better solution than post league phase play offs.

On the opposite I didn't like drop outs, they devalued Europa and Conference leagues. And one more underrated advantage of the new format, lower ranked teams are not disadvantaged anymore in the draw by getting on average harder opponents. Of course you still depend on the luck of the draw but at least every team has the same chance of being lucky

[Greyn]

On the opposite I didn't like drop outs, they devalued Europa and Conference leagues.

I partly agree, I had mixed feelings if a team which dropped out from the CL won the EL later on. Same applies for drop outs from the EL to the CoL. However it was a must to keep group stage interesting till the last MD. It was a part of previous system and as I said, I think previous system was better in general. With the new one big boys have more protection to avoid elimination and I think particularly about CL right now. It was made intentionally by UEFA, same like their policy of distribution of the CL spots which resulted with lower and lower risk for Top 3/4 countries to lose a club in the CL qualifiers. It was profitable for both sides, for clubs from England, Spain, Germany and France and for UEFA since clubs from those countries generated the highest financial profit so it is better to keep them in the competition as long as possible. This new reform is a continuity of this policy.

EDIT: I forgot about Italy of course.

[OlliWender]

The old format had gotten stale and this is definitely an improvement. After 4 matchdays 6 of the 8 groups were always decided and there were some 'EL level' groups nobody cared about in the first place.
Also, when there were groups of death or especially easy groups in the old format, it meant that all 4 teams had lucky or unlucky draws, while in the new format, one team's draw at least doesn't directly affect the strength of 3 other teams schedule.

The reason we have seen Bayern, Real, City or PSG already lose so many matches is the new format. When was the last time Bayern lost two matches in the group stage?
When in the old format they had two games each against the likes of Shakhtar, Bern, Belgrade, Leipzig, Copenhagen, Galatasaray or Benfica, they were never in danger of losing two matches and miss out on the Last 16 either, so I don't know why people keep saying they're too protected by 24 teams reaching the playoffs.

Regarding the dropouts to EL, I felt most people were a bit hypocritical.
When the likes of Man Utd or Barca ended up 3rd and dropped down to the EL, people were saying how it devalues the competition and how it's undeserved for them to have a chance to win a title in the easier competition, But when it's the likes of Slavia or Club Brugge, they suddenly don't mind anymore because they're not inherently richer or stronger than the majority of EL teams.

Looking at the Conference League though, I feel that only 6 matches to form a 36 team table doesn't work as well and is too much of a lottery to accurately portray the teams performance.

[Lyonnais]

I find this new formula quite exciting, and more exciting than the previous format. The big teams have do well at every game to secure a top-8 spot and it's not easy, the other teams are fighting for the top 24 and I like the idea that there is a reward to have the best position (KO draw procedure for the play-offs and Round of 16, although I'm not sure to understand very well the need for another draw 9 or 10 vs. 23 or 24, etc.)

On the other hand, the draw of the games could have been more transparent. I have some doubts that UEFA have prioritized some games.

I didn't like at all that 3rd group teams were reversed to the lower cup and I'm happy that this has been abandoned.

[Marin32]

I like it much more. It's a fresh and interesting take since the old group format got really boring. I like the idea of facing 8 opponents instead of 3. The idea of everyone having the same criteria for top 8 and top 24 is also a + in my book, the competition just feels much more connected and fair. I find it fair too that everyone faces around the same average difficulty of opponents due to teams facing their own pot too. I hated dropping into EL/COL so I was glad it got ruled out.

The only thing I would change is to having only the top 16 advance. The teams without a (realistic) chance to get there are already delighted by even showing up in a European Competition so that wouldn't be a problem and it would add much more jeopardy to a bad result of a favoured team.

[matt]

I will write my opinion later on.

Things i like:

- More opponents to play against and no home and away games against the same opponent in the league stage. I'm fine with it, the rest of the competition will be again home and away games against one opponent, so why not changing this aspect for this part of the competition? Good change;

- No "relegation" to lower competitions, i didn't hate like it was before, but overall i prefer as it is now. Of course it depends if the team involved (for instance dropping from CL to EL) was Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester Utd or Bologna, Lens. I only hated it when a big team went down to win the EL.

- One big league table: overall i like the concept, even if it's a bit weird to look at;

- Conference League schedule: 6 games are better than 8, because the league stage is clearly separated from the rest of the competition (no late January finish) and because you feel there is less room for errors. For instance, APOEL without a success against Fiorentina would be already quite in trouble.
LASK have to win in Banja Luka next matchday otherwise they are in trouble and so on...
With 8 games there is so much time to recover from a bad start (for instance i can clearly see Nice in the Play-off round looking at the remaining games, even though they have been horrible in the EL so far).




Things i don't like:

- Single games are less important now, especially when two teams quite sure to be in the top 24 (no matter what) face each other, less sense of urgency. Not sure if the race for top 8 is enough to fix it;

- Extensive use of "B teams", or as we say in Italy "turnover", it is necessary with a demanding schedule but the competitions risk to be devalued a bit, at least in this phase;

- No big difference between finishing 9th and 24th, that is quite questionable. A simple but important change would be: the Play-off round on a single game at home of the 9-16th teams. It would increase interest in the league stage: now there is the race for the top 8, for the top 24, let's add the race for the top 16!

- Safety cushion for the big teams, almost impossibile they go out in this phase, though PSG is trying to achieve the impossible. On the other hand you can also see the thing from another point of view: more chances for small-medium teams to make deep runs in Europe and still being in the competition later than before.

- League phase finish after Christmas, i'd rather have all three competitions with 6 games and not ending just two weeks before the Play-off round! (I will change idea if i will see at least 2, 3 games under the snow)

[matt]

Only two days left, let's get some votes more!

[matt]

Poll ended. I expected a closer contest and more like a 50%-50% split, but instead the positive opinions clearly prevail! I'm surprised.