Our attention lost in the latest twists and turns of the autumn section of the Champions League and the speculation on the possible round of 16 to come, we almost forget that a page in the history of the prestigious European competition has just turned. This group stage was the last as we know it, with eight groups of four teams having to decide between each other over a tournament spread over six days. Next year, this classic format will give way to the new C1 of Ceferin, a Super league which does not say its name.
Reminder of the format in force from 2024-2025
> 36 teams instead of 32
> A league phase rather than a group phase
> 8 matches for each club, but only one common ranking
> No home and away matches but four home matches and four away matches
> The first 8 advance to the round of 16
> teams between 9th and 24th place will compete for the remaining places for the round of 16 during play-offs
> The other teams will be eliminated without being transferred to the Europa League
More or less, Konami invented this format with its famous Masters League. Controller in hand with the legendary triptych Minanda, Castilo, Espimas, there was plenty to have fun with. Applied to real life, the idea looks a little less funny, for several reasons ranging from the threat to sporting fairness to the reinforcement of an already overpowered elitist caste, to the knots in the brain and the potential boredom caused by this Kafkaesque format.
Eight group matches, that’s two more than the current phases which we already tended to find long as long as our favorite teams fall into purgatory type groups C1-C3. The Lille, Salzburg, Sevilla Wolfsburg group of 2021-2022, for example, was nothing unforgettable. Imagine for just a second the same group with two extra days: Leroy Merlin would have made a fortune in the ropes department.
From Paris to Bordeaux, the great moments of the old-style group stages
Obviously, we mostly experienced good group stages, with varying fortunes for the French clubs. In the history department we will remember, for the best, Tuchel’s PSG which finished ahead of Liverpool and Naples in 2018 and Real Madrid the following year, the incredible qualification of OL against Dinamo Zagreb, the Girondins de Bordeaux ahead of Bayern and Juve in 2010 and for the worst OM with zero points in 2013… So many roller coasters that make us wish that the new formula would experience the same disastrous fate as the filthy double-group phase of the beginning of the century, forcing UEFA to get back to basics. It’s hard to believe it given the stubbornness shown by Ceferin and his clique, but let’s at least allow ourselves the right to dream.