The Premier League’s Big Six are likely to suffer a further blow as negotiations restart on the new format of the Champions League from 2024, with a fresh impetus to ensure no club qualify purely on the basis of their historical record. Europe’s elite clubs, pushed by the Premier League’s Big Six, had managed to include two extra places in the new Champions League format based on the past five years of a club’s UEFA coefficient — before they decided that wasn’t sufficient security and attempted to impose permanent membership of a tournament, regardless of performance, with their failed Super League. The new Champions League rule would mean clubs such as Liverpool and Juventus who are struggling to qualify by normal means this season, would still get into the tournament based on historic achievement. We won’t accept a bad option just because there is a worse one.’A majority of Premier League clubs are opposed to the reforms as they say they would dilute the excitement of domestic football. UEFA had agreed to a 36-team Champions League with 10 initial games based on the Swiss system used in chess, where you play appropriately ranked competitors rather than every team in the league.

Source: Daily Mail May 15, 2021 22:24 UTC