Media spin on new format Champions League is another level – Woeful | OneFootball

It is the Champions League epic finale tonight.

A ‘must not miss’ moment.

As the Champions League Swiss League stage comes to an end.

The exciting levels through the roof.

The media spin is another level ahead of tonight….

‘The Champions League’s inaugural league phase is set for an exciting final day with 25 of the 36 teams still awaiting their fate.

All 18 games will be played at the same time – at 20:00 GMT on Wednesday, with 16 matches having something on the line.

It marks the first season of the new format, a change from the old four-team groups with two going through from each – where sometimes there was nothing to play for by the end.

“It’s been brilliant, instead of the borefest we’ve had for years on the last matchday,” wrote ex-Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher on social media.’

Yes, totally great getting rid of that old rubbish boring format.

As an excellent article on The Mag pointed out so well on Tuesday (Champions League joke – UEFA believing they can fool all of the people all of the time – Read HERE), that stupid old boring groups of four playing six games each, would have seen the likes of Man City and PSG already knocked out after six games, Real Madrid almost certainly out as well. Whilst if it had been that old format, the likes of Aston Villa and many others of the not so usual suspects would have been already through, after their points total after six games.

This is how the Champions League table looks before tonight’s final group stage eighth round of matches, when at 8pm all 36 teams kick-off in 18 matches:

The BBC Sport spin/propaganda above declares; ‘The Champions League’s inaugural league phase is set for an exciting final day with 25 of the 36 teams still awaiting their fate. All 18 games will be played at the same time – at 20:00 GMT on Wednesday, with 16 matches having something on the line.’

Just to return to the real world for a moment, there have already been 126 group matches played to get it to this point, by the time we get through this eighth round of games AND then the play-offs featuring 16 of the 36 teams, it will have taken 160 (ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY) group (incl play-off matches) to get to the last 16 (not including the earlier rounds).

With eight groups of four, as the Champions League format was as recently as last season, it took 48 games to do the same thing, 112 (ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE) less than it does now, in this mega exciting new format.

After 126 group matches, if you look at the table above, the bottom nine (effectively the bottom ten, as Shakhtar Donetsk are realistically out as well) are already eliminated and most of them have been obvious for some time.

When BBC Sport and other media put out their propaganda they say so much will be decided on this final round of matches but it is like a magician’s sleight of hand, deceiving you.

For any kind of excitement you have to have jeopardy and with nine already out, we are talking about (after 126 matches which will become 144 after tonight), only three of 27 will get eliminated tonight.

The ‘exciting’ matches to look out for that will decide these last three eliminations are:

Man City will be 3-0 up against Brugge by half-time and will have survived

Stuttgart have to beat PSG but (IMHO) have no chance of doing so, the German side set to go out.

Even if Stuttgart get a draw against PSG, Sporting would only need a minimum of a point at home to already eliminated Bologna, which for sure they will get (all of the clubs already eliminated are going to play much weakened sides).

Dinamo Zagreb have to defeat AC Milan to stand any chance of surviving, which they won’t.

Shakhtar Donetsk are all but mathematically already out and even to stand the slimmest of survival chances, they have to win at Borussia Dortmund.

That is it.

Those are the only games that will decide anything of remote interest, certainly for neutrals.

All the rest of it is just deciding whether the usual suspects, the ‘big’ clubs, will either progress automatically, or do so through the huge safety net that reaches down to 24th in the league, that guarantees a two-legged play-off against very likely a far weaker and poorer (financially) club.

For me, the excitement levels are the equivalent of a combination of the Eurovision Song Contest and the old style Sky Sports Super Sunday double bills, when you would then check the fixtures and find out the ‘Super’ double bill was Stoke v Norwich and Barnsley v Bolton.

The BBC/BBC Sport have a vested interest, along with the rest of the media, some more than some, when it comes to selling the idea that this new Champions League format is exciting beyond belief.

The BBC are now amongst those who have certain TV coverage rights to the Champions League.

So tune in tonight and wait for some gripping excitement, gripping excitement that you will still be waiting for, when the final whistle goes after the completion of the 144th group/league match.

‘It was announced back in July 2022 that the BBC had secured video rights to European Football’s most prestigious club competition – the Champions League. As the BBC’s Head of Football, it’s a privilege to bring this exhilarating sporting competition free-to-air on all our platforms, for UK fans.

Now, for the first time, football fans can watch every goal from every match in the men’s Champions League, across the BBC. But there’s actually so much more.

What will the BBC be showing?

From 10pm on the Wednesday of match weeks, the best bits from every fixture will be available to watch on our brand new UEFA Champions League Channel on the BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website.

This gives fans the freedom to catch up on the fixtures that most interest them with crafted three minute match edits. Or they can watch every single game. The choice is theirs.

And from 10.40pm on the same day, a new midweek Match of the Day programme airs on BBC One and iPlayer.