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Football London
Football London
Sport
Aidan McCartney

The Champions League restructure to threaten Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man United and Spurs

A controversial new Champions League format has been proposed by UEFA.

Spanish publication Marca has published details on the revamp to the competition that could be introduced in 2024.

They report that relegation would become a feature of the new 32-team tournament as an expanded version of what currently takes place as clubs drop out into the Europa League.

These 32 teams would divided into four groups of eight, giving 14 matchdays at the group stage.

The top four teams from each group would qualify for the last 16. While the bottom team from each group would be automatically relegated to the Europa League.

The sixth and seventh team from each group would then take part in a play-off to avoid relegation.

The Champions League trophy. (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)

These plans will be presented by UEFA in August at a meeting Monaco as they look to overcome strong opposition towards the proposals.

The Premier League have come against the plans while La Liga are also thought to be against with only Barcelona and Real Madrid the only clubs reportedly in favour.

The proposals are seen as way of ring fencing the elite European competition and the Premier League released a statement on Wednesday revealing their objections to the plans.

The Premier League statement said: "The Premier League and our clubs today unanimously reaffirmed our strong opposition to the proposed reform of UEFA club competitions from 2024, which would alter the structure, calendar and competitiveness of league football.

"We believe the proposals - particularly the suggested format and qualification criteria - would be detrimental to domestic leagues across the continent.

"There was unanimous agreement that the domestic game should continue to be the priority for professional clubs, and any changes to the football calendar must respect the requirements of domestic competitions.

"Critically, qualification for the Champions League and the Europa League must continue to depend on current domestic performance."

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