This season\u2019s competition will make the end of group stage in its current format
\nPARIS
\nManchester City begin their defence of the Champions League on Tuesday when the group stage kicks off in the last season in its current format as Europe\u2019s elite club competition gets ready for a radical change.
\nUnveiled by UEFA in 2021 at the height of the crisis which saw a group of 12 clubs announce a breakaway Super League before promptly abandoning the project, the new-look Champions League will begin next year.
\nIt will see the number of clubs involved in the competition proper increase from 32 to 36, with all participants going into a single league in which teams will play eight games \u2013 up from the current six \u2013 in what is known as the \u201cSwiss system\u201d.
\nThis is therefore the last campaign, after two decades, in which the Champions League will begin with a group stage featuring eight sections of four teams, with the top two in each advancing to the last 16.
\n\u201cWe are convinced that the format chosen strikes the right balance and that it will improve competitive balance,\u201d said Aleksander Ceferin, the president of European football\u2019s governing body, when the changes to the Champions League were confirmed in May last year.
\nThe format that is on its way out was brought in for the 2003\/04 season, ending an experiment with a second group stage.
\nIn terms of symmetry and simplicity it cannot be bettered, with half the teams advancing from the group stage to the last 16.
\nBut this is an era in which major club and international competitions keep expanding. In addition, there has been a recognition that the Champions League group stage has gone somewhat stale.
\nThe financial gulf between the continent\u2019s most powerful clubs and the rest is growing all the time, accentuated in particular by the decision to award a portion of prize money based on the position of teams in UEFA\u2019s own club ranking.
\nThat means the team placed at number one gets over 36 million euros ($38.4m) just for being the top-ranked side, with the amount dropping progressively so the lowest-ranked team receive only just over one million euros.
\nEven at this elite level, there are plenty of teams who are doing little more than make up the numbers, albeit while being handsomely rewarded.
\nIt is hard to imagine Swiss side Young Boys or Serbia\u2019s Red Star Belgrade making a big impact alongside Pep Guardiola\u2019s City and RB Leipzig in Group G.
\nCity should stroll through to the last 16, racking up goals in the process, and they begin as favourites to retain a trophy they won in June by beating Inter Milan 1-0 in the final in Istanbul.
\nThat success saw City finally win the competition they had been chasing since the Abu Dhabi-led takeover of 2008 that transformed the club.
\n\u201cThis project is to want more, more ambition,\u201d said Spanish midfielder Rodri after scoring the winner for City in last season\u2019s final.
\nSo who can stop them?
\nIt surely will not be the champions of Switzerland or Serbia, or a Leipzig team who lost their star defender, Josko Gvardiol, to City during the close season.
\nRecord 14-time winners Real Madrid are always contenders in the Champions League, although Carlo Ancelotti\u2019s team find themselves in a difficult group alongside Napoli, Braga and newcomers Union Berlin.
\nBayern Munich have reinforced in attack with the signing of Harry Kane, while Paris Saint-Germain have lost Neymar and Lionel Messi but kept Kylian Mbappe and strengthened around him.
\nBoth of their seasons will be defined, as ever, by their performances in the Champions League.
\nArsenal will hope to make an impression on their return to the Champions League for the first time since 2016\/17, while Saudi ownership has propelled Newcastle United back into the competition after two decades away.
\nHowever, they find themselves in a section along with PSG, AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund.
\nUEFA might have been less inclined to change the format of the Champions League format if their competition featured groups like that more often.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard and challenging but I think there\u2019s some great European games for us to experience and great places to visit for our supporters,\u201d said the Newcastle manager Eddie Howe after the draw.
\nHis team begin away to seven-time European champions Milan on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This season\u2019s competition will make the end of group stage in its current format PARIS Manchester City begin their defence of the Champions League on Tuesday when the group stage kicks off in the last season in its current format as Europe\u2019s elite club competition gets ready for a radical change. Unveiled by UEFA in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356887,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-356857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n