Latest news with #ChampionsLeague-style
Daily Record
08-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Record
Champions League-style Challenge Cup revamp aims to give kids more chances
The competition has been given a radical new look for next season SPFL chiefs have announced a Champions League-style revamp for the Challenge Cup, designed to breathe new life into the competition. An estimated £1.25m in prize money will be shared with clubs for next season's competition, with the winners receiving £150,000, a 50 per cent increase on this season. Next season's competition, rebranded the KDM Evolution Trophy from the SPFL Trust Trophy that Livingston won in March, will feature a first-round league phase made up of 30 teams from League One and Two and 10 Premiership 'B' teams. Premiership 'B ' teams will play all games away from home. The draw will be split into three pots and regionalised into north and south, based on geography. Teams will only play against six opponents from their own region, three from each of the other two pots. Goals scored and points gained from the six matches will feed into the one league table – similar to the Champions League – with the top 22 progressing to the round of 32 and the bottom eight eliminated. Teams finishing in positions one to six are seeded in the round of 32, alongside the 10 Championship clubs. Teams from seven to 22 are unseeded in the draw, with teams paired according to final league phase and Championship rankings, and assigned two potential opponents from the other end of the rankings. The competition reverts to a traditional knock-out, and there is no regionalisation at this stage, with open draws from the round of 16 onwards. It is hoped that the revamped competition will provide more opportunities for young players, as youth prospects aged 15 are now eligible to take part. SPFL group chief executive Neil Doncaster said: 'We're confident the new competition format will help develop some of our most promising players across the country. 'Allowing players to compete at a high level from the age of 15 will pay dividends for them, for their clubs and, ultimately, for the national side. 'We've had long discussions with our member clubs and the Scottish FA about this new competition format, and we've also introduced some key principles to reduce travel time and costs, particularly for William Hill League 1 and 2 clubs. 'We would lastly like to thank the SPFL Trust and the donors who support them, who have been fantastic supporters of this competition for the last four seasons.'
New York Times
17-02-2025
- Climate
- New York Times
Messi ‘Will Play' as Miami Prepare for Frigid Champions Cup Match in K.C.
Inter Miami are preparing for frigid temperatures in their official 2025 debut, and, as of Monday, that debut still involves Lionel Messi. Despite unconfirmed reports over the weekend that put Messi's availability in doubt, he will travel with Miami ahead of Tuesday's match at Sporting KC and is expected to play in the first leg of the first round of the Concacaf Champions Cup, the region's equivalent of a Champions League-style tournament. Advertisement Wind chills in Kansas City are expected to have single-digit temperatures feeling as low as 18 below zero (F), with the region bracing for a winter storm that has recently affected large parts of the U.S. Snow is also expected in the area. Although Messi's participation was said to be in doubt due to the winter weather, Miami manager Javier Mascherano spoke to the media Monday and confirmed that Messi is available and 'will play' – provided there is no match postponement. As of Monday morning, the match at Children's Mercy Park remained on as scheduled. In October, The Athletic reported that MLS officials are considering switching to a fall-spring calendar that would include breaks in the summer and winter. Among the advantages that league officials and executives have discussed is to improve MLS' participation in the global transfer market. On the flip side, MLS teams and fans would have to contend with winter weather in some of the coldest parts of the country, such as what's currently hitting K.C. GO DEEPER MLS is considering changing to a fall-spring calendar after the 2026 World Cup The winner between SKC and Miami will advance to a round-of-16 date with Cavalier SC, with the first leg on March 6 before the return leg in Jamaica on March 13. Should either SKC or Miami reach the quarterfinals, an all-MLS encounter would await, featuring either the Columbus Crew or the winner of the LAFC/Colorado Rapids first-round tie. In addition to the MLS regular season and the Champions Cup, Miami will participate in this summer's FIFA Club World Cup. They'll open the tournament at Hard Rock Stadium against Egyptian side Al Ahly FC on June 15.
The Guardian
12-02-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
The Australian Championship: FA unveils Champions League-style second tier
It's not often recognised by those outside its flock, but the round ball game was the first of Australia's various footballing codes to field a truly national league – the NSL, which launched in 1977 with representation from four states before growing to include Canberra a year later. And while the nearly 50 years since have given ample demonstration that going first doesn't necessarily correlate with success, Australian football will once again step into the unknown in 2025, launching a national second-tier competition known as the Australian Championship in October. This being Australian football, though, there are plenty of questions, chief amongst them what this new competition is supposed to be and, more pressingly, how it's going to get there. The initial plan to launch a standalone, home-and-away league in November 2023was the preferred option of the eight foundation clubs unveiled. But challenges in finding at least four more clubs from a further two states that met its necessary sporting, financial, and geographic criteria forced Football Australia to alter its plans in the 15 months since. Instead, the 2025 Australian Championship will commence with 16 teams competing in four groups of four before moving into a knockout finals series – a Champions League-style model. The eight foundation clubs announced in 2023 – APIA Leichhardt, Marconi Stallions, Sydney Olympic, Sydney United 58 and Wollongong Wolves from New South Wales, and Avondale, Preston Lions and South Melbourne from Victoria – will retain protected status in the league, joined by the premiers of the eight state-based National Premier League competitions around Australia. With two foundation sides and two premiers per group, sides will play a home-and-away round-robin in group stages commencing on 10 October – travel costs will be subsidised by Football Australia – before the two highest-ranked sides in each advance to single-leg elimination games, with the final to be played on 6 or 7 December. It does bear acknowledging that a Champions League format was hardly the preferred format following the long-running process to get to this point. Given that Football Australia previously ran an NPL finals series that garnered little respect from the clubs that qualified for it, let alone the broader public, it will need to ensure it can differentiate its new property amongst local stakeholders. It must also ensure it is perceived as a genuine second-tier competition worthy of attention and investment – be it emotional or actual – by the broader public, sponsors, and media. But as Football Australia executive James Johnson said on Wednesday, 'we have to start somewhere.' And given that efforts to introduce any kind of second division in Australia have been so long-running, that some form of competition will actually launch in 2025 – alongside a commitment from the federation to continue to support and grow the competition – feels like a minor miracle. Importantly, even in its current limited format, it will still offer a greater and much-needed platform for everyone involved in the game below the A-League to demonstrate their abilities and aspirations. Ostensibly, that's the point of all this. Yet even before a ball has been kicked, questions and concerns linger. Beyond the general challenges associated with setting up a sustainable second tier in a country as large and with as crowded a sporting market as Australia, football has norms and expectations that present administrators with unique challenges. Chief among these is promotion and relegation, a path to which has to be introduced for a second tier to maintain long-term viability. Before that, however, there almost certainly will also need to be a transition to a standalone, home-and-away league with demonstrated durability and connection to the tiers below. And what exactly the medium- to long-term plan for the Australian Championship is will remain a question lingers as, for now, the format is just for 2025. Both Johnson and Nathan Godfrey, Football Australia's general manager for the national second tier, flagged that its operations and logistics would be the subject of frequent reviews and that a new 'request for proposal' phase will begin in the coming months, wherein clubs would be able to seek enshrined status as the eight foundation sides if they're able to hit certain thresholds. Should enough clubs be found, this could mean a home-and-away season may arrive as soon as 2026. Either way, if clubs are expected to reach this level, they'll need some degree of clarity about what they're aspiring to at some point. Sign up to Australia Sport Get a daily roundup of the latest sports news, features and comment from our Australian sports desk after newsletter promotion Forty-eight years on from the birth of the NSL, the Australian Championship represents another step into the unknown for Australian football. It's an exciting one, one long advocated and with exciting possibilities. But it's also a perilous one.
