UEFA has finally agreed on a change in the format of the Champions League in 2025 | Relief

UEFA appears determined to take action to promote the Futsal Champions League. European football’s governing body is finalizing a new format change for next season, which Relevo confirmed is awaiting approval. The Elite Round, which starts today, will disappear and after the Main Round dispute, Round of 16 and Quarter-final matches will be formed involving the 16 classified teams, which will be played round-trip based on the odds of the participating clubs.

In 2006, the European Cup was renamed the UEFA Futsal Champions League, and the name change entailed a change in format. 19 years later, European football’s governing body, led by Futsal competition director Laurent Morel, is finally updating the competition system. In the current Elite Round, the 16 qualifying teams will be divided into four groups, and the winners of each group will advance to the knockout stages of the final phase. This will be replaced by two-legged knockout rounds and quarter-finals in the 2025/26 season.

Due to the pandemic, UEFA has made preliminary changes to the 2021 season. The preliminary round, main round and elite round (originally planned with mini-tournaments) were replaced with singles playoff matches. The preliminary round was held in November, the 1/8 finals in January and the 1/8 finals in February. The final eight (instead of the final four) was played in May in Zadar. This experience has proven to be satisfactory and is the basis for future changes to be implemented and demanded by the main European clubs.

UEFA’s idea is to guarantee at least one match in Europe’s top competition for each participating team in front of its fans, and there could be as many as two, before the four semi-finalists are decided. that they will compete in the Final Four, the format of which will be respected. Last year, major clubs already expressed their dissatisfaction with UEFA regarding the choice of Yerevan as the location for determining the 2024 champion and other issues such as visibility, centralization of audiovisual rights (always in the hands of the host of each tour). and even providing a financial prize to the winner.

No matter how incredible it may seem, The UEFA Futsal Champions League champion does not receive any prize money. For example, in Spain, the RFEF awards the winner of the Copa del Rey €25,000 and the runner-up €18,500. The maximum continental tournament is a loss for many teams when traveling long distances, despite being subsidized at €10,000 per stage played. The cost of participation can soar up to 60,000 euros.

Illes Balears Palma Futsal and Gimbi Cartagena will make their debut tomorrow, Wednesday, as hosts of the elite round of Groups D and A respectively. The Mallorcans, for the third year in a row, and the Cartagenas, in their continental debut, will fight to reach the Final Four in front of their fans in Son Moy and at the Palais des Deportes, where the main European football competition will take place. for the first time in its history.

On Wednesday at 19:30 the two-time continental champion will start the game against the Kazakh futsal club Semey, which will include Ferrao and Higuita. On Thursday at the same time they will meet with the Slovak futsal club Lucenec and They will finish their run on Saturday against Polish record holders Bielsko-Biala under Catalan coach Chus Lopez. and they have two Spanish players in their ranks, such as Daniel de la Pena and Eric Panes.

For my part, The League champion starts on Wednesday at 20:30 against the Italian Meta Catania, coached by Juanra Calvo. On Thursday, at the same time, Duda’s team will meet with Riga Leton, led by the Portuguese Thiago Polido with six Brazilians and two Argentines (Dylan Vargas and Angel Claudino). The Melon Club will finish the game on Saturday at 20:00 with a game against the Romanian Galati with the Brazilian Cacau on the bench.

The other venue will be Lisbon, where the Portuguese derby between Sporting and Braga will take place. along with the Belgian RSC Anderlecht and Pilsen. Group C will be the most difficult of all. In Group B, Croatian futsal Dynamo will take place in Zagreb, where another match of maximum rivalry will take place with compatriots from MNK Olmissum. Spaniard Marlon Velasco’s Kairat Almaty starts as the clear favourite, while France’s Etoile Lavalloise, also led by another Catalan such as Manolo Moya, completes the quartet of teams.