Comparing this year's Champions League and Europa League participants

February is an exciting month for many reasons. If you’re a romanticist then you get to enjoy Valentine’s day on February 14th.

But if you’re a football fan there will only be one thing on your mind that day – the UEFA Champions League second-round tie between Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich from the Parc Des Princes. The reigning champions of France and Germany have been earmarked by oddschecker, which compares Champions League odds and free offers, as two of the favorites for European glory this season.

And there are plenty of other mouth-watering last sixteen ties across the continent throughout the month. Perennial German contenders Borussia Dortmund will face off with Graham Potter’s misfiring Chelsea. Italian Champions AC Milan will face off against beaten 2019 finalists Tottenham Hotspur. And there will be a repeat of last year’s final, as Liverpool face Real Madrid across two legs for a spot in the quarterfinals. But sprinkled in between those giant tussles are a number of ties that we are more used to seeing in Europe’s secondary competition, the Europa League.

Lines blurred between Europe’s top two competitions

Belgian champions Club Brugge were one of the surprise packages throughout the group stages. They lost just once in Group B, finishing as runners-up, consigning two-time finalists Atletico Madrid to an early exit. They will face off with Benfica in the second round. Their Portuguese rivals FC Porto will do battle with Inter Milan, who are appearing in the Champions League knockout stages for just the second time in a decade. Elsewhere, reigning Europa League holders Eintracht Frankfurt face Serie A’s runaway league leaders Napoli, and last season’s Europa League semifinalists RB Leipzig face Manchester City.

But we have grown more accustomed to some of those sides plying their trade in European football’s secondary club competition in recent years, and they hardly get the pulse racing as some of those earlier mentioned ties do.

Real Madrid Stadium — © Luis Quintero/Pexels.com

If we look at this year’s Europa League, some of the biggest names in world football will be going head-to-head. Champions League regulars Juventus, Ajax, and Red Bull Salzburg all have fixtures in the UEL this term. The tie of the round is undoubtedly Manchester United vs Barcelona. Those two teams contested the Champions League final twice in three seasons between 2009 and 2011. And then we have Premier League table toppers Arsenal, who have already qualified for the tournament’s last sixteen, and could meet any of the above-mentioned sides in the latter stages of the competition.

The new UEFA Champions League format

From the 2024/25 season onward, the UEFA Champions League as we know it will change. The format will expand from 32 to 36 teams and, rather than teams being separated into eight groups of four as they currently are, all 36 teams will be placed into one giant league together. From there, the top 16 teams will progress to the knockout stages and the competition will continue in the knockout format that we currently know and love. But it’s clear to see why UEFA, under the influence of Europe’s biggest clubs, have chosen to implement this new format now.

The 36-team, or ‘Swiss Model’, as it is now known, is UEFA’s answer to the proposed breakaway European Super League. It has been created to ensure that Europe’s elite are happy and competing at the highest level at all times. With Juventus, Manchester United, Barcelona, and Arsenal – four teams that were a part of the proposed Super League – all competing in the Europa League this season, it’s clear that Europe’s elite has banded together with UEFA to consolidate their power.

Going forward, European football will change, perhaps forever. Clubs such as Club Brugge, Benfica, and FC Porto – as well as usual latter-stage regulars RB Salzburg and Ajax – may not get a chance to strut their stuff in the Champions League’s knockout rounds in years to come. And that would be a crying shame.