UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin is enthusiastic about the Champions League format in which only one match is played in the quarter and semi-finals instead of two matches. The Slovenian wants to investigate whether the ‘corona setup’ can become the fixed system in the future.
“I have to say that the format with only one game seems a lot more interesting than the set-up with two games,” said Ceferin in an interview with the news agency on Sunday. AP, a few hours before the start of the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain in Lisbon.
“We had to do it this way this year because of the pandemic, but it turns out to be a very interesting system. I’ve gotten messages from people inside and outside football who are very enthusiastic about this format. There is a lot less. tactics. “
Due to the corona crisis, the Champions League had to be shut down in March, in the phase of the eighth finals. UEFA decided to finish the tournament from the quarter-finals in one city (Lisbon). Normally, clubs play a home and away game in the knockout stages of the Champions League – except in the final – but now there was only one match at a time.
“It will not be easy to fit such a ‘final eight-tournament’ into the calendar”, said Ceferin. “But we’ve seen in recent weeks that fans want these kinds of exciting and unpredictable matches.”
The current Champions League format is still contractually fixed up to and including the 2024/2025 season. “But we definitely have to think about whether this season’s system is something for the future”, says Ceferin. “We have to talk about that seriously in September or October.”
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