Prepare yourself as UEFA have declared a brand new European competition will commence in 2021. The UEFA Executive Committee are currently holding its meeting in Dublin, Ireland.
On the official UEFA website, the organisation have stipulated the rules of the new competition which has been temporarily named under the working title of UEL2 and will feature 32 teams in an initial group stage;
• The format will see eight groups of four teams, followed by the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.
• An additional knock-out round will be played before the round of 16 between teams ranked second in their groups and the third-ranked teams of the UEFA Europa League groups.
• The new competition will feature 141 matches over 15 match weeks, exactly like the UEFA Europa League.
• The winner of the new competition will be entitled to participate in the UEFA Europa League in the following season.
• The new competition matches will be played on Thursdays. As such, the UEFA Champions League continues to be played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the UEFA Europa League and the new competition will be played on Thursday with one additional kick-off time slot for a limited number of matches in principle at 16.30 (CET) to be further defined.
• All club competition finals will be played in the same week: Wednesday (new competition), Thursday (UEFA Europa League) and Saturday (UEFA Champions League).
The competition doesn’t affect the format of the Champions League. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has stated, reports the BBC,
"The new competition makes Uefa's club competitions more inclusive than ever before.
“There will be more matches for more clubs, with more associations represented in the group stages.
"This competition was born out of ongoing dialogue with clubs through the European Club Association."
Perhaps this could give fresh hope to teams currently occupying positions in their respective leagues outside of European qualification. Three-time Champions League winners Manchester United are in that current predicament having slumped to seventh in the Premier League table.
Spain remain the most successful nation in both Champions League and Europa League competition, with 18 and 11 winners, respectively. How soon will they assert their dominance in UEL2?
