Bavarian boss Karl-Heinz Rummenigge fuels the discussion about the reform of the Champions League. What could she look like? SPORT1 shows five models.
Will the Champions League become a phasing-out model in the near future? Or will a fundamental change make it shine in new splendour?
For several years now, the leaders of football have been discussing how to proceed with the royal class: is it being reformed or is it falling victim to the scenario of a European superleague?
Such a Super League, in which the top European clubs would be amongst themselves – at the expense of the domestic leagues and the smaller European associations – is a mindset that has recently become more and more concrete and has thus put UEFA under pressure to eliminate the criticisms of the Champions League or to risk its end.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, Chief Executive Officer of FC Bayern Munich, has now put the discussion back into focus: he revealed that a “Week of Football” with semi-finals and finals in a city could in the future go from an emergency to a permanent solution – and at the same time called for solutions to a problem that he sees as a major weakness of the Champions League in its current form.
“The group phase is getting a bit boring. She has six games, and this year we were already qualified again after the fourth day of the game, “said Rummenigge, who had recently distanced himself from the Superliga plans. He referred to simulation games within UEFA to “make this group phase more attractive”. What he would have heard will “please the people, I am convinced of that”.
A Champions League in a new guise is to be expected from 2024, after the expiry of the television contracts in force until then. Until then, it is also necessary to clarify in what form the Champions League will be intertwined with the Europa League and the Europa Conference League, which will start this year – and how much the new Champions League will be at the expense of national competitions such as the Bundesliga.