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UEFA discuss triple Champions League rule change for next season that could impact Newcastle United
James Rutherford
3 – 4 minutes
Newcastle United will soon discover their Champions League fate.
With five games to go, Eddie Howe’s side are in a strong position to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
As long as Newcastle United finish in the top five of the Premier League, they will be back in Europe’s elite competition. Their fate is in their own hands, as five wins from five will guarantee Champions League qualification. That is obviously easier said than done.
Alan Shearer thinks Newcastle will qualify, as the Magpies look to bounce back against Ipswich Town on Saturday following their defeat to Aston Villa.
Champions League changes discussed for 2025/26
If Newcastle United do reach the Champions League, they will take part in a very different tournament to the one they were involved in during the 2023/24 season.
Clubs now compete in a 36-team league, playing eight games rather than six. The new format helped Aston Villa, who made it to the quarter-finals after navigating the league stage with ease.
Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images
Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images
There could now be even more Champions League changes on the horizon, as UEFA make plans for next season.
According to Bild, UEFA are considering making three changes to next season’s competition.
The first would see extra-time be abolished in the knockout stages. Instead, games would immediately go to a penalty shootout if they are level after two legs.
The second change would give teams that finished in the top eight of the league phase home advantage in the second leg of knockout games. That is only currently the case in the round of 16. This change would give the higher ranked team home advantage in the second leg of the quarter-final and semi-final as well.
Finally, the third change involves clubs from the same country playing against each other. As it stands, clubs from the same country can play against each other immediately after the league phase. The change would stop this from happening until the quarter-finals.
No group of death for Newcastle United
Whether those changes are implemented or not, Newcastle United are aiming to qualify for a very different Champions League.
The Magpies were given an unenviable task last season, drawn in the group of death alongside Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund.
Newcastle had to play three European heavyweights home and away. Howe’s side ultimately finished bottom of their group and crashed out of Europe.
That would not happen next season. There will be no chance of a group of death if Newcastle qualify.
The league phase now means that clubs face off against eight different opponents – two from pot one, two from pot two, two from pot three and two from pot four.
The new format would benefit Newcastle, as it would give them a stronger chance of advancing to the knockout stages of the competition.
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Champions League Considering 3 Format Changes Amid Arsenal Complaint
Daniel Hepburn
9 – 12 minutes
As we near the end of the Champions League’s first campaign in its new-look format, competition chiefs UEFA are reportedly considering whether to make a total of three changes to proceedings after Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal made a complaint.
The Gunners – alongside their semi-final opponents Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona and Inter Milan – are the final four sides left in Europe’s primary competition, which means there will be a fresh winner after Real Madrid reigned supreme in 2023/24.
🇪🇺 This season is just the fourth time this millennium that the semi finals of the Champions League includes clubs from four different countries! 2004 (🇫🇷🏴🇵🇹🇪🇸) 2010 (🇩🇪🇫🇷🇮🇹🇪🇸) 2018 (🇩🇪🇪🇸🏴🇮🇹) 2025 (🏴🇫🇷🇪🇸🇮🇹) pic.twitter.com/Q4OeTi9DjH — The European Football Express (@TheEuroFE) April 17, 2025
As of April 23, the semi-finals are a matter of days away as the aforementioned quartet of teams eye a spot in the Munich-based final in May. But UEFA are already looking ahead to next season’s iteration to see how they can improve each side’s experience.
Instead of having separate groups, the 2024/25 instalment of Europe’s top table saw 36 teams compete in a league format – the top eight went progressed and those between 9th and 24th battled it out for the remaining eight spots to make up the last 16.
Three Champions League Changes Set to Be Discussed by Committee
Meeting scheduled for day before this season’s final in Munich
According to German publication Bild, per Mail Online, there are three alterations that are being considered. Firstly, UEFA may change their regulations so that teams that finish higher in the league phase get home advantage for the return leg in the knockout stages.
This season, those teams who secured passage through their favourable finish in the league phase played at home in the second leg in their Last 16 fixtures – but that, as things stand, is not for either the quarter-finals or semi-finals.
As a prime example, although they reigned triumphant over two legs, Arsenal were forced to travel to Spain for the second leg of their quarter-final against Real Madrid. The same will occur for their two-legged semi-final clash with PSG.
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No wonder teams are desperate to make it into European football’s biggest competition.
That’s despite Arsenal – who are widely regarded as one of the biggest clubs to never win the Champions League – finishing third in the Champions League league phase, whereas Real Madrid finished 11th and PSG, even worse off, finished in 15th.
In what would be a major change to the nature of football competitions full stop would be the potential removal of extra time. UEFA, as reported by Bild, are exploring the option of sending ties straight to penalties if both sides are level.
Although it would eradicate the prospect – and excitement – of any last-minute winners, it would be put in place in order to ease the workload, albeit just 30 minutes of action extra. If the rule passed, it would be an unprecedented change.
The last potential change concerns the prospect of teams from the same country playing one another in the league phase – as those ties are not seen as ‘attractive’ to both fans and broadcasters.
UEFA, as a result, could look to bring back the protection rule, which means that intra-country encounters would have to wait until the quarter-finals. That rule was in place prior to the competition’s latest round of changes.
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As two notable examples: in this season’s Champions League campaign, PSG locked horns with fellow Ligue 1 side Brest in the play-offs. Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen also faced one another in the Round of 16, as did the two Madrid-based sides.
While fans have this season’s competition to look forward to, the Club Competitions Committee are due to meet – and thus, discuss the aforementioned trio of changes – in Munich on May 30, just one day ahead of the final at the Allianz Arena.
