Champions League set for another new shake up with World Cup plan for winners

The Champions League is set for another major shake-up at the start of the 27/28 season, with one of the changes seeing the European champions given a standalone fixture

The Champions League winners will start the defence of their trophy with a stand-alone glamour tie. It is part of a major shake-up of European football’s biggest competition from the 2027/28 season.

That means current champions Paris Saint Germain would play the first game of the campaign at home on the Tuesday night in the first week of the league phase.

The rest of that week’s action would then be played on the Wednesday and Thursday of that week in a major shake-up of the Champions League.

That mirrors what happens in World Cups when the defending champions kick off first and also in other sports like Wimbledon when tennis champions get prime time slots on Centre Court.

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It comes as part of a major change in the way UEFA and the European Football Clubs organisations sell the rights to the Champions League. Netflix could bid for streaming rights for one round of action per week and it is understood the global giant has already been sounded out.

Relevent Football Partners is selling the rights to the competitions on behalf of UEFA and it is believed that could lead to a ten per cent rise in the value of the rights.

UEFA’s current income from club competitions – including the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League – is currently worth around £4billion.

That is higher than the Premier League but UEFA and clubs are clearly looking at ways to increase income and revenue from the expanded competition and talks were held at the new-look European Football Clubs summit last week.

Guy-Laurent Epstein, Co-Managing Director of UC3, the collective bargaining unit, said: “The launch of this new sales tender marks a significant milestone in UC3’s commercial strategy.

“By introducing a more flexible and globally focused approach, we aim to attract a broader range of partners and ensure UEFA’s Club Competitions continue to lead the way in sports media innovation.

“Relevent Football Partners’ expert knowledge of the commercial landscape make them an ideal partner to help us deliver on this ambition.”

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