UEFA have agreed to make a change to next season’s Champions League format that would have helped Arsenal in 2024/25.
LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 29: The players of Arsenal pose for a team photo prior to kick-off ahead of the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Semi Final First Leg match between Arsenal FC and Paris Saint-Germain at Emirates Stadium on April 29, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)
Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images
Dale Johnson reports for ESPN that UEFA’s club competitions committee agreed in a recent meeting that there will be an alteration to the Champions League rules for next season.
The intention is to give second-leg home advantage to teams finishing higher in the League Phase, which was the case in the round of 16 this season, but not in the quarter-finals and semi-finals.
It was a pretty clear oversight by UEFA from the beginning, and it ultimately meant Arsenal had to play second legs away from home in both the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, despite finishing above both of their opponents in the League Phase.
MADRID, SPAIN: Bukayo Saka of Arsenal celebrates scoring his team's first goal with teammate Gabriel Martinelli during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Quarter Final Second Leg match between Real Madrid C.F. and Arsenal FC at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on April 16, 2025. (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)
Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images
Second-leg home advantage doesn’t necessarily win you the tie. After all, Arsenal beat Real Madrid largely because they’d accrued such a significant advantage at home in the first leg. But the clubs involved would clearly prefer to play the second legs in their own stadiums.
From next season, the order of the tie will be determined by which team finished higher in the League Phase, all the way through to the final.
Johnson adds that the 2025/26 regulations had already been published before this decision, but a modification can still be made if ratified by the Executive Committee. That’s expected to happen before the League Phase draw on August 28th.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - MARCH 11: Achraf Hakimi of PSG battles with Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Round of 16 Second Leg match between Liverpool FC and Paris Saint-Germain at Anfield on March 11, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images
This will be the only alteration from this season’s rules, with all other suggestions rejected.
Potential changes rumoured included scrapping extra time, and blocking clubs from the same country from facing each other in the knockout play-off round.
There was also talk of reseeding the draw after the play-off round to avoid situations like Aston Villa (8th) facing Club Brugge (24th) whilst Liverpool (1st) faced PSG (15th), which happened because Brugge pulled off a shock to knock out Atalanta (9th) in the previous round.
None of that is set to happen, so those scenarios could occur again in 2025/26.
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