Some of what I have complained about in my coefficient introduction post has been addressed by the changes made just today. The field will move from 32 teams to 36, and teams will play 8 league games against 8 teams, rather than home and away against 3 group opponents. The top 8 qualify automatically for round of 16, 9-24 will compete in two-legged ties to make the round of 16, no teams will drop to UEL.
The allocations will also change, and may address some imbalances. For starters the “Built-in Lag” I discussed will be minimized. 2 of the extra positions will go to the associations that score the most points in the previous season. Meaning for 22/23 England and the Netherlands would each get a 3rd team in the competition. Assuming this means that Netherlands Runner up would be group stage automatic, and 3rd place would start in the 3rd round of qualifying, while England’s 5th place team would automatically start in the group stage. A nation other than England or Spain has finished in the top 2 season rankings just 3 times since 2014, Italy, Germany , and now the Netherlands. So in general this will probably help Spain and England the most, if it were in effect this year Spain would have had 6 teams in the group stage, and earn all those extra bonus points. Another of the new spots would go to the 3rd place team from the 5th nation, currently France, and the last extra spot would go into the Champions Path of qualifying, so the champions from associations 11-55 would all be fighting for 5 spots instead of 4. This will not take place until 24/25 so all of these positions are likely, if not guaranteed to change. France, Netherlands, and Portugal will battle for 5th, while Ukraine, Norway, and Switzerland will battle for 12th. These places would bump down as normal if the title holders of the UCL and UEL qualify through their league standings, so potentially 11 and 12 champions would qualify automatically. That is if UEFA decide to handle it that way. Currently, if both UCL and UEL winners qualify through league play the 11th ranked champion and 3rd place team from 5th association team bypass qualifiers.
While the top leagues get their concessions, there are a lot of good things for lower ranked teams as well. The above mentioned fact that associations ranked 12,13, and 14 could get automatic qualification is huge. Furthermore, there would no longer be teams that drop from UCL to UEL and from UEL to UCL. This increases the likelihood of clubs from smaller associations making quarter-finals, semi-finals, and finals of the UEL and UECL. In general I think these changes will be good, yes we will initially miss the group stage feel of home and away matches, and we will all groan about matchup inequities, but the teams will still be seeded. The assumption is that each team will play 2 teams from each Pot, so the strength of opponents should be relatively similar in the league phase of play. Changes to the access list recently that have only aided the top 4 leagues, these changes at least do help lower ranked nations as well. I am excited to see the impact of these changes moving forward. Next season becomes extremely important as it will set the ranking for the 24/25 allocation, and then 23/24 will decide those 2 bonus spots.
Twitter: @USUEFAGuy