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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.
