Today's Edition
London (AFP)
Manchester City begin their defence of the Champions League on Tuesday when the group stage kicks off in the last season in its current format as Europe’s elite club competition gets ready for a radical change.
Unveiled by Uefa in 2021 at the height of the crisis which saw a group of 12 clubs threatened to start a breakaway Super League, the new-look Champions League will begin next year.
It will see the number of clubs increase from 32 to 36, with all participants going into a single league in which teams will play eight games – up from the current six – in what is known as the ‘Swiss system’.
This is therefore the last campaign, after two decades, in which the Champions League will begin with a group stage featuring eight sections of four teams, with the top two in each advancing to the last 16.
“We are convinced that the format chosen strikes the right balance and that it will improve competitive balance,” said Aleksander Ceferin, the Uefa president last year.
The format that is on its way out was brought in for the 2003/04 season, ending an experiment with a second group stage.
In terms of symmetry and simplicity it cannot be bettered.
But this is an era in which major club and international competitions keep expanding. In addition, there has been a recognition that the group stage has gone somewhat stale.
City should stroll through to the last 16, and they begin as favourites to retain a trophy they won in June by beating Inter Milan 1-0 in the final in Istanbul.
That success saw City finally win the competition they had been chasing since the Abu Dhabi-led takeover of 2008 that transformed the club.
So who can stop them?
It is hard to imagine their applecart could be upset by the champions of Switzerland or Serbia, or a Leipzig team who lost their star defender, Josko Gvardiol, to City during the close season.
Record 14-time winners Real Madrid are always contenders in the Champions League, although Carlo Ancelotti’s team find themselves in a difficult group alongside Napoli, Braga and newcomers Union Berlin.
Bayern Munich have reinforced in attack with the signing of Harry Kane, while Paris Saint-Germain have lost Neymar and Lionel Messi but kept Kylian Mbappe and strengthened around him.
Both of their seasons will be defined, as ever, by their performances in the Champions League.
Arsenal will hope to make an impression on their return to the Champions League for the first time since 2016/17, while Saudi ownership has propelled Newcastle United back into the competition after two decades away.
However, they find themselves in a section along with PSG, AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund.
Uefa might have been less inclined to change the format of the Champions League format if their competition featured groups like that more often. But teams such as Newcastle are not complaining, having worked their way to the main competition after two decades of wilderness. Eddie Howe, manager of the newly backed club by Saudi Arabia, said: “It’s hard and challenging but I think there’s some great European games for us to experience and great places to visit for our supporters.”
