The Champions League is set to undergo another major shake-up at the start of the 27/28 season, with one of the changes including a single match being awarded to the European champions.
The Champions League winner begins the defense of the trophy with a solo glamorous tie. This is part of a major overhaul of European football’s biggest competition from the 2027/28 season.
This means reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain will play their first game of the season at home on Tuesday night in the first week of league play.
The rest of the week’s games will be played on Wednesday and Thursday of that week, in a major change to the Champions League.
This mirrors what happens at the World Cup when the defending champion kicks off first, and what happens in other sports such as Wimbledon when the tennis champion earns a prime-time slot on center court.
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This comes as part of a major change in the way UEFA and European football club organizations sell Champions League rights. Netflix could bid for streaming rights to the weekly round of action, with the global giant understood to have already been approached.
Relevent Football Partners is selling the rights to the competition on behalf of UEFA, and it is thought this could increase the value of the rights by 10 per cent.
UEFA currently earns around £4 billion worth of revenue from club competitions such as the Champions League, Europa League and European Conference League.
This is higher than the Premier League, but UEFA and clubs are clearly looking at ways to increase income and income through increased competition, with talks held at last week’s new European Football Clubs Summit.
Guy Laurent Epstein, co-managing director of UC3, the collective bargaining arm, said: “The launch of this new sales tender marks an important milestone in UC3’s commercial strategy.
“By introducing a more flexible and globally focused approach, we aim to attract a wider range of partners and ensure that UEFA’s club competitions continue to lead the way in sports media innovation.”
“Relevated Football Partners’ expertise in the commercial environment makes them the ideal partner to help realize this ambition.”
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