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Manchester City ace lambasts UCL’s new format on Twitter

By Amrit Santlani

Manchester City's German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan (C) celebrates with teammates after scoring their second goal during the English Premier League football match between Manchester City and Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, north west England, on January 17, 2021. (Photo by Clive Brunskill / POOL / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. / (Photo by CLIVE BRUNSKILL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Manchester City's German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan (C) celebrates with teammates after scoring their second goal during the English Premier League football match between Manchester City and Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, north west England, on January 17, 2021. (Photo by Clive Brunskill / POOL / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. / (Photo by CLIVE BRUNSKILL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) /
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Just as football fans were starting to celebrate the suspension of the ‘European Super League’ for the foreseeable future, UEFA announced that they will be ringing in some changes into the Champions League as well.

Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan has come ahead and lambasted the newly proposed UCL reforms while adding that the new Champions League format would be “Lesser of the two evils” when compared to the European Super League.

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As all the chaos surrounding the European Super League continues to grab headlines, UEFA came out and announced reforms of their own, the governing body is planning to increase the number of participating team in the Champions League to 36, while also changing the group stage format entirely.

Such changes could be detrimental for the players, per Ilkay Gundogan, who feels that currently “nobody is thinking about the players.”

Manchester City ace Ilkay Gundogan rips new UCL format on Twitter

Taking to his Twitter handle on Thursday evening, Gundogan wrote, “With all the Super League stuff going on… can we please also speak about the new Champions League format?

“More and more and more games, is no one thinking about us players?

“The new UCL format is just the lesser of the two evils in comparison to the Super League…”

He further added, “The UCL format right now works great and that is why it’s the most popular club competition in the world – for us players and for the fans.”

UEFA’s proposed plans for Champions League revamp

Earlier this week, UEFA announced that the new Champions League format would be introduced in 2024, with 36 teams taking part in a single league, and the top eight teams would qualify automatically for the knockout stages.

Moreover, the teams finishing between ninth and 24th would then contest in a two-legged play-off to make up the remaining round-of-16 slots.

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Obviously, such a move would see an increased number of matches and that could have a toll on the players’ health, which is exactly the point Ilkay Gundogan made.

Meanwhile, Manchester City, PSG, Real Madrid and Chelsea and have qualified for this season’s Champions League semifinals, which will be played next week.

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