UEFA to change Champions League rules following Arsenal's quarter and semi-final concerns

Daily Record

2 days ago

Arsenal are reportedly set to get their way after being 'aggrieved' at the Champions League quarter-final and semi-final draws
UEFA are poised to make a slight adjustment to the Champions League next season, just a year after implementing a completely new format.
The Champions League concluded in Munich on Saturday night with Paris Saint-Germain romping to their first trophy in the competition by trouncing Inter Milan.
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This match marked the end of the inaugural season of the new league table format, which seemed to be a triumph for UEFA.
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Despite the final being one-sided, the European football organisers successfully merged the expanded 36-team format with numerous thrilling matches.
However, it appears they are not entirely satisfied with their innovation, where 36 teams battle in a league table phase to determine who progresses to the knockouts.
Under the current system, a team's position in the league phase dictates their seeding for the play-off round. This means the top eight teams receive a bye to the round of 16, where they face a play-off winner and have the advantage of playing at home in the second leg.
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Nonetheless, home advantage is determined by a random draw after the round of 16 due to UEFA's preference for an 'open draw', so teams who performed better in the group stage could find themselves obliged to play the home leg first at the quarter-final or semi-final stage.
This season, Arsenal found themselves in a peculiar situation. Despite an impressive league phase where they finished third, ahead of Real Madrid in 11th and PSG in 15th, the Gunners were dealt away draws for both the quarter-final and semi-final second legs.
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Despite thrashing Real 5-1 on aggregate, Mikel Arteta's squad reportedly expressed their dissatisfaction with the situation, feeling that their consistent performance in the league phase wasn't rewarded in the knockouts.
Their grievances haven't gone unnoticed, as German newspaper Bild reports that UEFA is almost certain to alter how they draw the knockout ties.
The UEFA Club Competitions Committee convened on Friday and reportedly agreed on the proposed change before the Champions League final – and final approval is now 'considered a formality.'
Other potential changes were also discussed, such as moving directly to penalty shoot-outs instead of extra time and preventing two clubs from the same nation from facing each other until the competition's later stages. However, no agreement was reached on these proposals.
Arsenal weren't the only club to be disadvantaged by the 'open' draw system: Barcelona hosted the first leg of their quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund, despite finishing second in the league phase.
Arteta has dismissed the notion that PSG were the superior team in their semi-final clash, despite Arsenal's exit from the competition. The Gunners' boss stated: "100 per cent I don't think there's been a better team [than Arsenal] in the competition from what I have seen, but we are out," and added, "This competition is about the boxes and in both boxes are the strikers and the goalkeepers and theirs was the best in both games."