Big changes are coming to football. It seems inevitable. In the wake of revelations that FIFA president Gianni Infantino wants to expand the World Cup to 16 groups of three, UEFA has revealed that it is altering the set-up of the Champions League.
European football’s governing body has made slight changes to the kick-off times of games, qualification process, coefficient rankings and financial distribution of their flagship competition and confirmed its intention to bring the new format into use from 2018 to 2021.
As part of the new system, the four highest-ranked leagues – Spain, England, Germany and Italy – will see their top four teams go straight into the group stage of the competition, as will the Europa League winners, whereas they can currently go into the final play-off.