UEFA Champions League decision will please Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp but could cost FSG millions

Jurgen Klopp has been vocal in the past over his view that the football calendar is simply too hectic.

The Liverpool boss has seen his side play 58 games in all competitions so far this season, and by the time the end of the season arrives their run to the finals of the Carabao Cup, FA Cup and Champions League, as well as a bruising 38-game Premier League season will mean the Reds will have played 63 times during the 2021/22 campaign.

From 2024 the planned changes to the format of the Champions League, devised under the 'Swiss Model', had included creating a new larger league table to replace group stages, with the games rising from six to 10. The increase of games would have had a knock-on effect for clubs, particularly in English football, with more midweek slots required, potentially putting competitions like the Carabao Cup at risk.

But a report from The Times claims that plans have now changed following pressure from some clubs outside Europe's elite over the original plan to hand two Champions League spots to teams with the best co-efficient, meaning that clubs like Manchester United would qualify even if they finished mid-table by virtue of their performance over the past decade in European football.

The report claims that the extra Champions League places will now be given to teams who performed best in European competition during the previous season, going some way to appease what many saw as creating a de-facto closed shop for the historically bigger teams whose competitive performances domestically did not see them qualify on merit for the competition. Also changing from the original plans, according to The Times, is that the number of group stage games will go up from the six that it currently stands at