The Champions League victors will commence their trophy defence with a stand-alone glamour tie, as part of a significant overhaul of Europe’s premier football competition from the 2027/28 season. This means that current champions Paris Saint-Germain would’ve hosted the first match of the campaign on a Tuesday night in the opening week of the league phase.
The remainder of the opening week’s matches will then take place on Wednesday and Thursday, marking a major revamp of the Champions League format. This comes as part of a significant shift in how UEFA and the European Football Clubs organisations sell the rights to the Champions League.
Streaming giant Netflix could potentially bid for streaming rights for one round of action per week, and it is understood that the global behemoth has already been approached. Relevent Football Partners is selling the rights to the competitions on behalf of UEFA, and it is believed this could lead to a ten per cent increase in the value of the rights.
UEFA’s current income from club competitions – including the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League – is currently valued at around £4billion. The Premier League’s revenue is surpassed by that of UEFA and clubs, who are evidently exploring methods to boost income from the expanded competition, as discussed at the recent European Football Clubs summit.
Guy-Laurent Epstein, Co-Managing Director of UC3, the collective bargaining unit, stated: “The launch of this new sales tender marks a significant milestone in UC3’s commercial strategy. By introducing a more flexible and globally focused approach, we aim to attract a broader range of partners and ensure UEFA’s Club Competitions continue to lead the way in sports media innovation.
“Relevent Football Partners’ expert knowledge of the commercial landscape make them an ideal partner to help us deliver on this ambition.”
It’s the latest set of changes to the Champions League format, with the most impactful having come into play last season. Gone were the four-team group stages, with a Swiss-style league phase coming in to replace it.
The knockout stages have also changed, with an extra round introduced last season, whereas this year, a shift to a seeded-style format will be in place across the whole tournament. Previously, the seeding only carried over into the round of 16, meaning teams that finished higher in the league phase could’ve been playing the second leg away from home.
It was a scenario Arsenal found themselves in during the quarter-final against Real Madrid and the semi-final against PSG. That won’t be the case for this year’s edition.