The revamped Champions League kicks off this week with all the gushing hyperbole we have come to expect from this glossy, money-saturated event. Five British football teams will be in action along with a record 31 others for the first-round ‘league’ stage. The difference this year is that the marketing blitz is accompanied by earnest attempts to explain the new format – which is a tad complicated to say the least – and sell it to us.
There is one super-size ‘league’ in which teams play eight of their 35 (!) rivals once
We are now getting the ‘Swiss’ system, invented in the late 19th century by Julius Muller, a teacher and chess player from Brugg near Zurich. There is one super-size ‘league’ in which teams play eight of their 35 (!) rivals once, with the top eight finishers and eight from those finishing 9th to 24th (who play off in eight two-leg ties) progressing to the ‘round of 16’.
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