UEFA Champions League. While the Champions League final was to be a party this Saturday, May 28, the latter turned into a fiasco with a failing organization.
A party on the pitch, a cataclysm off it. While the real Madrid won its 14th Champions League against Liverpool, this final will be especially a bad memory for thousands of fans because of the incidents at the Stade de France. According to the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, the counterfeit notes of several Liverpool supporters are the cause of the many overflows. Remarks disputed by Ronan Evain, general manager of the association Football supporters Europe. “It’s a problem that has been communicated to the organization of the match to the public authorities, but which is marginal”, he explains at the microphone of Europe 1. “In the few accreditations that I have been able to see, there were some pretty tinkered things at home. We are not at all like a mafia who would have sold thousands of counterfeit tickets to supporters, “says Ronan Evain.
Unfortunately, due to the fiasco, some people were unable to enter the stadium despite having tickets, what about reimbursement? For the time being, UEFA has not communicated on a possible reimbursement of trapped supporters. In the refund policy as we have read, this scenario is in no way rated for a refund. “No refund is possible in any case not described in this Ticket Refund Policy,” the note explains.
According to reports, France had asked for the tickets to be digital, but the English insisted on a more traditional medium. “They are the ones who imposed paper ticketing,” explained David le Bars, general secretary of the SCPN police union. “Normally, for a final, it is electronic ticketing which poses fewer problems for control. This paper ticketing, which favored photocopying, which slowed down passages through the gates, is one of the main causes of the disorder to which we was able to attend”.
The group stage of the Football Champions League is played from Tuesday September 6, 2022 to Wednesday November 2, 2022 while the knockout stage will be played from Tuesday February 14, 2023 to Wednesday May 17, 2023. As for the final, it is scheduled for June 10, 2023 at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul. The calendar was then drawn up as follows by UEFA:
- Qualifications
- Preliminary round, semi-finals: June 21, 2022
- Preliminary round, final: June 24, 2022
- First qualifying round: 5-6 and 12-13 July 2022
- Second qualifying round: 19-20 and 26-27 July 2022
- Third qualifying round: 2-3 and 9 August 2022
- Play-offs: August 16-17 and 23-24, 2022
- Groups
- Day 1: September 6-7, 2022
- Day 2: September 13-14, 2022
- Day 3: October 4-5, 2022
- Day 4: October 11-12, 2022
- Day 5: October 25-26, 2022
- Day 6: November 1-2, 2022
- Direct elimination
- Round of 16: February 14-15-21-22 and March 7-8-14-15, 2023
- Quarter-finals: 11-12 and 18-19 April 2023
- Semi-finals: May 9-10 and 16-17, 2023
- Final: June 10, 2023
UEFA wanted a reform of the Champions League, the latter was enacted this Tuesday, May 10 for the 2024/2025 season. To put it simply, the group stage will be replaced by a mini championship with 36 teams in total against 32 currently . Each club will face eight different teams (four at home, four away) and will therefore play two more matches than with the current format. Thereafter, the eight best teams of this first phase will be directly qualified for the final phases, and the clubs classified between the 9e and the 24e place will face each other in round-trip matches in play-offs to complete the final draw.
Thanks to this reform, France obtains a 3rd direct qualifying place for the group stage of the Champions League since it is currently the 5th European nation. This reform also inflates the number of matches since from 2024, 225 matches will be scheduled instead of the current 125. In the team Wednesday May 11, the president of UEFA Aleksander Ceferin justified this change. “Just because something works well doesn’t mean it shouldn’t ever change again
he also explained. Always try to improve. […] Believe me, it’s not made for the big clubs. […] It will be much more interesting. In the current formula, in the group stage, we know which clubs will qualify after two or three matches.”
The TV rights battle continued to rage for this new 2021/2022 season. UEFA has awarded the French TV rights for the “Big Ears Cup” to beIN Sports and Canal+, which will ensure the broadcast of the 2021-2022 Champions League. RMC Sport will co-broadcast with Canal the two best Champions League posters until 2024 and beIN SPORTS will offer all the remaining matches. TF1 will broadcast the final scheduled for May 28, 2022.