The Champions League resumed its rights this Tuesday, with the first matches of the league phase, the new format of the competition. During the After Foot on RMC, Daniel Riolo expressed his fears about the formula.
The new Champions League format must prove itself. In this 2024-2025 season, UEFA is now proposing a 36-team league phase, where the top 24 will qualify. The top eight will go directly to the round of 16 where the rest will play play-offs. During the After Foot on RMC this Tuesday evening, Daniel Riolo expressed his doubts about the format.
“I’m afraid that we’ll understand, on the third or fourth day, that this formula is a bit fake,” said Daniel Riolo, pointing out the gaps between the teams like Bayern Munich who thrashed Dinamo Zagreb (9-2) on Tuesday evening. “Just tonight (Tuesday), I have a worry that takes hold of me whereas I was skeptical and rather excited at the beginning.”
The After can be found as a podcast here
“They stole the Super League formula”
For Daniel Riolo, the best teams in the C1 should “walk very quickly” in this phase of the league. “You will have to separate the teams very often on goal difference and maybe some will have the same difference, I don’t know… It’s an anticipation, maybe we will have to wait until December or January to make the first assessment”, continued the columnist, who therefore asks to see. “I had this feeling while watching, there is even a match that escaped me between Young Boys and Aston Villa…”
The full After Foot from Tuesday September 17, 2024
“I think we are really in a multiplex football now where the goal is not for us to watch the matches in full,” Riolo said of this new formula. “Football is totally internationalized today, the new formula validates the fact that it is a championship that must replace the national championships. We said that we were fighting this idea at the time of the Super League, in fact they simply stole the formula.”
