Everyone against Real Madrid. All against all. Once the old Champions League is over, definitively now, Europe is projecting itself onto the new one. An epochal revolution, the third great change in history. Once upon a time there were knockout cups. In 1992, when the Champions League took the place of the Champions Cup, under the first threat of a Super League, the concept of groups was introduced, two at the beginning, finally eight. Now the single championship, but not the Italian way, playing against everyone, because it would be impossible for calendar reasons.
real favorite
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Everything is new, except the assault on Real Madrid who took the sixth Champions League of the last eleven, even without Ronaldo. The ninth consecutive final won since 1981. If the blancos reach the final act, they are a sentence. Mbappé also arrives, but football, fortunately, is not a sum of winning cards: we’ll see if any balance changes. In any case, an assault on Ancelotti in an indecipherable tournament, because the new Champions League has almost no obstacles left, not even derbies. Europa League and Conference are more or less the same thing. Here’s a guide to the incredible season ahead.
the single group
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One group, one ranking. The draw in Monte Carlo (29 August) also changes because the bands, until yesterday the joy and pain of the tournament, no longer have any value. The 36 teams (29 already in the groups, only 7 from the preliminaries), no longer 32, are divided into 4 pots, ordered on the basis of the five-year UEFA ranking, except for the champions, but only for organizational reasons: each team faces two rivals from each band, one at home, one away. Total: 8 games.
the 36 finalists
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Before the Champions League becomes that tournament where 36 players are played and Real Madrid, innervated by Mbappé, always wins, the others would do well to wake up. The ’24-25 tournament really has the best. Let’s say who’s missing first: United, Tottenham and Chelsea from England, Roma and Naples from Italy, plus Seville, Porto and Ajax. The effect of the single group is an enigma, but it doesn’t take much to assume that no one will be able to afford calculations, because the risk, for one point less, is ending up in the playoffs or, worse, out of everything.
the single ranking
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At the end of a longer calendar, with eight rounds instead of six, and the first to take the exclusive week from Tuesday to Thursday, the ranking is made up. The top 8 head to the round of 16. Those from 9th to 24th place in the play-offs (the 8 best seeds play the return leg at home) to decide the other 8. This is how a tennis table is made up from the round of 16 (second and last draw, always with seeded players) until the final. Those from 25th to 36th place go home, the tournaments are no longer communicating vessels.
the crossroads and derbies
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Derbies can also happen in the group, only for championships with at least 4 clubs. Let’s take Italy which has 5. Inter is in the first pot, Bologna in the fourth, Juve and Atalanta in the second, Milan is first in the third: if the Rangers go out in the preliminaries, the Rossoneri go up to the second and, with three Italians, the “internal” challenge could also occur. An algorithm will designate the intersections, with balls it would be a feat.
the prices
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The prize money rises from 2 to 2.5 billion euros. The winner can reach 150/155 million. The UEFA prizes are now made up of three items: participation (670 million), results (950) and market pool-tradition (850). Merit counts more, history and TV rights less. Qualification – today we can say with good approximation – is worth around 53 million for Inter and Juve, around fifty for Atalanta, 46 for Milan and 27 for Bologna. Champions League, Champions business.
