The Champions League and Club World Cup have shaken things up by adopting a different format to the ones that we football fans are already used. Both of which have their drawbacks, but Bayern Munich CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen is still getting used to the new UCL format.
“I’m convinced of the new format. But admittedly, I also have to get used to two points: the league phase against eight different opponents without return games,” Dreesen quipped (Sport Bild as captured by Twitter account @iMiaSanMia). “And that the draw for the round of 16, for which we of course want to qualify directly, determines the entire tournament brackets.
Former Bayern, FC Barcelona, and current Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola wasn’t a fan of the new format, who was quoted as saying: There will be more injuries. Uefa knows it, they don’t care at all”. The Bayern executive, however, sees it differently: “I’m sure that Pep is not planning to go into the playoffs with Manchester City, but to qualify directly for the round of 16, it takes a total of 15 games, which is exactly two more than in the old format. The Premier League with 20 clubs means four more games than in the Bundesliga. We have one cup, the English teams have two. So the overall workload is higher for them.”
