Will WBA ever play in Europe again? Just wondering, but anyway the Champions League looks like it will adopt the swiss model when the present Champions League format ends in 2024. Below is an extract from the Telegraph as they attempt to explain how it works.
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"The competition will be expanded from 32 to 36 teams and there will be one big league – except each team only plays 10 other opponents. They will be in that one league but will not face 25 other teams. They will all be seeded with a mixture of ‘high’, ‘medium’ and ‘low’ fixtures to try and encourage competition but it will be a jumble, a lop-sided, manufactured mess.

They will not play the same team home and away (so straight away that is skewed) with the top eight qualifying automatically for the last-16 and the teams finishing ninth to 24th entering play-off round. Those finishing ninth to 16th will be seeded and play the second leg at home against a team who finished 17th to 24th. So there are yet more matches and only eight teams are actually eliminated after 10 groups games.

Any objective analysis of this will see it is ‘gaming the system’. It is claimed there will be more meaningful matches but, instead, there is an even greater danger than the top teams will win their first few fixtures and qualify and have to fulfil maybe three, four games of no significance to them but which might affect the outcome of the league. If one of their greatest rivals is in danger of going out they could field a weakened side against a team that could take their place.

It just feels all wrong: a league that is not a league, playing some opponents at home and others away, even more dependent on a seeding system – and a greater chance that it can all be manipulated by dominant teams"
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Bring back the Fairs Cup