UEFA to make another Champions League rule change for next season after Arsenal criticism

The Champions League has concluded for the 2024/25 season, with Paris Saint-Germain victorious, and UEFA have already decided to change the rules for next season

UEFA are set to make a tweak to the Champions League next season, just one year after introducing an entirely new format. The Champions League came to its conclusion in Munich on Saturday night as Paris Saint-Germain deservedly claimed their first trophy in the competition by thrashing Inter Milan.

The match brought to an end the first season of the new league table format, which appeared to be a success for UEFA. While the final was one-sided, the organisers of European football still managed to combine the expanded 36-team format with plenty of dramatic matches.

But it seems that they are not entirely pleased with their creation, in which 36 teams compete in a league table phase to decide which sides make it into the knockouts.

In the current format, a team’s ranking in the league phase determines their seeding for the play-off round. It means the top eight teams get a bye to the round of 16, where they take on a play-off winner and enjoy home advantage in the second leg.

READ MORE: PSG star Achraf Hakimi slammed for ‘nonsense gimmick’ in Champions League finalREAD MORE: Arsenal’s Viktor Gyokeres transfer bid suffers huge setback as champions join chase

However, home advantage is decided by 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 forced to play the home leg first at the quarter-final or semi-final stage.

That is exactly what happened to Arsenal this season. The Gunners were extremely impressive in the league phase, finishing third, ahead of Real Madrid in 11th and PSG in 15th, yet they were still handed away draws for both the quarter-final and semi-final second legs.

Although they smashed Real 5-1 on aggregate, Mikel Arteta ’s side reportedly voiced their displeasure over the situation, having felt aggrieved that their consistency in the league phase wasn’t rewarded in the knockouts.

Their complaints haven’t fallen on deaf ears, with German newspaper Bild reporting that UEFA have all-but decided to change the way they draw the knockout ties. The UEFA Club Competitions Committee met on Friday and reportedly agreed on the proposed change before the Champions League final – and final approval is now ‘considered a formality.’

Other changes were also considered, including proceeding directly to penalty shoot-outs instead of extra time and preventing two clubs from the same nation from facing off until the competition’s later stages. No consensus was reached on those ideas, though.

Arsenal weren’t the only club to fall foul of the ‘open’ draw system: Barcelona at home for the first leg of their quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund, despite finishing second in the league phase.

HAVE YOUR SAY! What do you make of the proposed changes? Comment below.

The Gunners were knocked out by eventual winners PSG in the semi-finals, but Arteta refused to accept the French side were the dominant side. “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,” he said.

“This competition is about the boxes and in both boxes are the strikers and the goalkeepers and theirs was the best in both games.”

Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.