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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Graeme Young

Celtic and Rangers on red alert as UEFA kingpin targets Champions League revolution

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin admits he's eyeing a football revolution and wouldn't be against one-legged ties becoming the European norm.

The home and away element for this season's Champions League and Europa League knockouts was banished as the governing body had to think on its feet amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

And now Celtic, Rangers and the rest of Scottish football will be on high alert as a change in approach could give sides outwith the traditional top five leagues more of a fighting chance moving forward.

There have been a host of thrilling matches under the new format in both competitions, including Bayern Munich's stunning 8-2 victory over Barcelona.

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard and Celtic manager Neil Lennon (SNS Group)

Lyon's huge wins over Juventus and Manchester City also demonstrated how the one-off games could favour the underdog.

And Ceferin concedes he is a massive fan of the new approach.

He said: "I have to say that this system of one match seems more interesting to me than the other system with two legged matches,

"It's one of the interesting things that was brought by this pandemic. We had to do a system like that. We had to play this way, but at the end, we see it's a very interesting system.

"Now, it's quite complicated to place a final eight in the calendar. But we saw that people want exciting matches, that in one match, every team can beat every team in Champions League or the Europa League.

(UEFA via Getty Images)

"So it's something to consider for the future ... I think in September or October, we have to start to seriously speak.

"Even though you have less matches, the value can be higher if promoted properly. I see my friends from football and out of football calling me and texting me and they are all extremely excited about this system. Not so much tactics."

Sunday's Champions League final between Bayern Munich and PSG will see the German giants attempt to win the competition for the sixth time in their history, while PSG are attempting to lit the trophy for the first ever time.

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