How Champions League groups could look under shocking new plans with Chelsea, Spurs, Man City and Liverpool facing European heavyweights
UEFA and the European Clubs Association are pushing for a new version of the Champions League.
It would mean a minimum of 14 games for clubs in the group phase and 21 matches to win the competition.
The change would be apart of a three-tier structure to European football, planned to start from the 2024-25 season.
So far, the Prem clubs have resisted the proposals, telling ECA chiefs that they do not believe there is an appetite for more European games.
The Big Six are fearful that agreeing to the idea would have significant knock-on effects, both to the value of the Prem’s TV deals and forcing them to abandon the Carabao Cup, which would have a devastating impact on the EFL.
But Uefa and the ECA believe they have support from around Europe, not just the big countries, but the smaller ones.
So how could the competition look?
SunSport has analysed the outlines plans to demonstrate how year one of the new Champions League could look -if it were being brought in this season.
Country cap – no nation could have more than four teams.
The Big Five countries would each start with a full complement of four sides.
The other eight guaranteed places from be assigned to the champions of the next highest-ranked associations
The final four spots would be filled by a play-off stage involving the champions of the other Uefa members
Teams from each nation would be separated in the group
Possible scenario:
Group 1: Manchester City, Valencia, Borussia Dortmund, Atalanta, Lille, Galatasaray, Genk, Celtic
Group 2: Liverpool, Real Madrid, Juventus, Leverkusen, PSG, Shakhtar Donetsk, Salzburg, Dinamo Zagreb
Group 3: Chelsea, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, St Etienne, Benfica, Young Boys Bern, Ajax
Group 4: Tottenham, Barcelona, Napoli, Leipzig, Lyon, Zenit St Petersburg, Slavia Prague, PAOK Salonika
Top four in each group go into last 16 knock-out phase.
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Fifth team retains place in Champions League for following season (if they qualify through domestic league).
Sixth placed team play a seventh placed team in a two-legged relegation play-off. Losers to play in Europa League group phase the following season.
Eighth placed team relegated to play-off stage for place in following season’s Europa League group phase (the two-legged tie to play).