Mark Langdon: New Champions League format deserves to be given a fair chance

So long the Champions League group stage. I would say it was nice knowing you, but after this season there is a real sense that it needs the refresh it will get next term.

The existing format is broken, so it does need fixing. 

There will always be fun matches in the group stage, but not enough games seem to count and it can feel like a slog. If I have watched Manchester City beat Leipzig or Shakhtar Donetsk once then I must have seen them do it at least another five times. The same teams playing out invariably the same result hardly gets the pulse racing.

The knockout stages of the Champions League provide the greatest quality of football of the entire season. But how 32 teams are whittled down to 16 is all a bit mundane. There are too many mismatches and not enough of the big teams play each other.

The Swiss format, which is being brought in next season an attempt to freshen up the competition, is the biggest change to the Champions League since it moved away from the old straight two-legged knockout of the European Cup in 1992, when eight teams played in two groups of four to provide a final between the winners of each section.

In the following season the top two qualified for the semi-finals and it has grown ever since with 36 teams going to post in 2024-25. Initially, I was sceptical about the refresh - and there are still some problems to address - but Uefa could not allow its flagship tournament to continue churn out dull opening exchanges.

The group stage will be no more and has been replaced by a league phase that will see all 36 teams play eight matches - four home and four away - but those fixtures will be against eight different opponents rather than the current round-robin. A seeding system will be used to determine a fair(ish) set of fixtures, although, as is the nature of any draw, some teams will get luckier than others.

Crucially, it should at least mean more head-to-head games between the elite. The top eight teams will automatically qualify for the last 16 while the sides ranked ninth to 24th will do battle over two legs in a seeded draw for the chance to join them. 

There will be no backdoor entry to the Europa League for the losers with that competition and the Conference League (note the new name from Europa Conference League) also moving to the Swiss system, albeit with only six rounds of matches in Uefa's third-tier competition. 

Another smart idea allows the two smaller competitions the chance to shine with one round of each tournament taking place on a different week to the Champions League. 

I can't be the only one who struggles to get up for Backa Topola against FC Hacken after two nights glued to the Champions League, but it might be a different story when the Conference League is played during a separate week. 

In fairness, it might still be one to avoid, but the idea of the Champions League taking place exclusively between Tuesday and Thursday on a given week is already potentially better than the current two-day offering.

Ultimately, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear so the whole thing might be doomed - but anything is worth a try at this stage.

Premier League predictions

Liverpool -1 handicap v Man Utd 5-6

Liverpool have shown no mercy to United in recent meetings - their last three wins in the fixture have been 7-0, 4-0 and 5-0 - and the weakened visitors look at the mercy of another Anfield annihilation.  

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