FA Cup winners could be given Champions League place - but only if they're a big club

UEFA are in the process of agreeing new rules that would see two places become available in the Champions League for clubs that failed to qualify under traditional rules. Clubs granted access will be those with the most historic success.

The Champions League is getting a big shake-up in 2024. We know there has long been issues between the major clubs and UEFA, with the former often feeling like they weren’t getting a big enough slice of the revenue pie, or at least that they weren’t maximising their potential returns.

So, of course, there’s been a lot of pressure on UEFA for change and we saw that come to a head in spectacular fashion with the announcement of the proposed Super League in 2021.

That didn’t happen, thankfully, but according to the Telegraph, other changes are in the process of being finalised that could prove pretty controversial themselves. First off, though, let’s take a look at the new Champions League format.

The new Champions League will use the so-called ‘Swiss model’, which will see the present system of 32 clubs being drawn into eight groups scrapped in order to be replaced by one giant league table.

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Each team will play 10 matches against 10 different opponents and the top eight in the league will progress automatically to the first knockout round. The teams placed between 9th-24th will enter a play-off round, from there the eight winning teams from the play-off matches will join the original eight in the round of 16. Still with us?

The catch is that instead of having 32 teams, there will now be 36.

One extra slot will be allocated as an extra qualifying position in Europe’s fifth best league, currently that is