A new season begins in Athens on Tuesday night Champions League, the richest club competition in football. In a season in which 36 clubs again expect a league stage with eight games, the fight for the trophy also brings a fight for huge money because the total prize fund of UEFA is around 2,467 billion euros.
PSG enters the new season as the defending champions, but the road to Munich, where the final will be played, will not be easy. Arsenal, Barcelona, Bayern and Real Madrid stand out among the main candidates for the trophy, while four debutants will be among the European elite for the first time. Serbia, on the other hand, will not have a representative among the 36 clubs, but its footballers and coach Marko Nikolić will still be part of the biggest European club scene.
Format and prize pool
The format of the competition is the same as the previous two seasons. First, the league part of the competition with 36 teams is played. Each participant plays eight games, four away and four at home. The best eight go directly to the round of 16, while the teams that place between 9th and 24th place play for a place in the round of 16.
The total prize pool of UEFA for the Champions League is about 2,467 billion euros. Each club that qualified for the league stage automatically received a fixed amount of 18,62 million euros. Each win in the league phase brings 2,1 million euros, while a draw is worth 700.000 euros. Prizes are also distributed according to the placement in the table, where the last 36th place brings about 275.000 euros, while the first-placed team of the league phase will collect as much as 9,9 million euros (plus an additional bonus of two million euros for the teams from 1st to 8th place).
Knockout stages carry different amounts: one million euros (playoff round); 11 million euros (round of 16); 12,5 million euros (quarterfinals); 15 million euros (semi-finals); 18,5 million euros (final). The champion will earn an additional 6,5 million euros.
Favorites
Two clusters of favorites are profiled to win the trophy of the European champion. The first consists of the champions of France, England and Spain, that is PSŽ, Arsenal and Barcelona. The others are Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.
Photo: Franck Fife, Pool Photo via APThe brain of PSG
PSG enters the new season with a minimally changed lineup. Coach Luis Enrique believes in the team and made very few changes. From those who played a significant role, Bradley Barcola (Liverpool) and Gonzalo Ramos (Milan), who had an important role in the rotation, left the club. The Parisians will thus have a somewhat shorter rotation in the attacking positions, given that PSG has strengthened in those positions only with the scorer in the World Cup final, Ferran Torres, who can cover all three offensive positions. Although Paris is somewhat shorter in the rotation, it should not be a problem considering that they will not have any challenges in the French championship and they will be able to rest the starters. In addition to Torres, left back Lucas Digne from Aston Villa has also arrived at PSG, he will strengthen the rotation at left back and thus relieve the Portuguese Nun Mendes.
Arsenal, the champions of England, further strengthened their squad during the summer. Stopper Enzi Consa, midfielder Bruno Guimaraes and left winger Christos Collis arrived in London, while only Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli left the club. With these reinforcements, Arsenal remained by far the deepest team, with two lineups of equal quality. Guimaraes will bring them additional strength in midfield, while Colis has so far proven to be a good solution on the left wing. Konsa came to London to close the burning problem, which was caused by the injury of William Saliba. With these reinforcements, Mikel Arteta has the material for the last step in Europe.
After the World Cup, where its players carried the brunt of the Spanish team's burden, Barcelona decided to step up and brought Rodri the golden ball. With this, in addition to a good reinforcement, they showed their strength in the battle for a signature against their biggest rival, Real Madrid. In addition to Rodri, Anthony Gordon and Karim Adeyemi arrived in Catalonia, who are versatile strikers who can play almost all offensive positions. They failed to complete the transfer of Julián Alvarez from Atletico Madrid, so they resorted to the forced decision of bringing Gabriel Jesus to the striker's place. The position of the striker is precisely the biggest problem of the Spanish team.
Photo: AP Photo/Alberto SaizBarcelona did not bring a starting nine.
Bayern Munich has an extremely high-quality squad with obvious problems. The biggest one is in goal, Manuel Neuer is still the first option at the age of 41, but he has dropped significantly in quality in recent years. Elsewhere, they strengthened by bringing in left-back Nathaniel Brown, who will relieve the injury-prone Alphonse Davies. In addition to him, came the Moroccan Saibari, who is offensively versatile and can help in the rotation in all positions. In addition to the goalkeeper, Bayern has a depth problem because Bayern does not have adequate solutions in case of injuries in some positions.
Jose Mourinho returned to Real Madrid, and with him the belief that the Galacticos would work. Five new names Bernardo Silva, Yann Diomande, Denzel Dumfries, Marc Cucurella and Ibrahim Konata have been added to the existing Madrid squad this summer. Silva is an all-rounder who would help any team in the world. Diomande is one of the biggest potentials on the wing, while Dumfries and Kukurelja are one of the best full-back pairings in the world, and Konate will strengthen the heart of a defense where Real struggled last year. Real's problem so far has not been quality, but the way to restrain the stars who need to work for the club's success.
Debutants
This seasonal edition of the Champions League brings as many as four debutants. The debutants are Como (Italy), LASK from Linz (Austria), Sabah from Azerbaijan and Viking from Stavanger (Norway).
Como will perform for the first time on the European stage and immediately at the highest level. During the previous year, the team led from the bench by Cesc Fabregas took fourth place in the Italian league and thus secured a place in the Champions League.
LASK, as the champion of Austria, managed to reach the league stage after Sturm Graz and Red Bull Salzburg managed to do so from Austria in the previous period.
Sabah achieved historic success for Azerbaijan, as they became only the second Azerbaijani club to play in the Champions League, after Qarabag.
Viking qualified for the Champions League as the third Norwegian club, after Bodo Glimt and Rosenburg.
Serbia: black, without any white
Serbia will not have any club in the Champions League. But they will have several representatives in the form of coaches and players. Only 11 players will play in the Champions League this season: Filip Kostić (PSV), Aleksandar Stanković (Inter), Mile Svilar (Roma), Luka Jović and Mijat Gaćinović (AEK Athens), Andrija Maksimović (Red Bull Leipzig), Svetozar Marković and Aleksandar Popović (Slovan Bratislava), Vanja Milinković-Savić (Napoli), Veljko Simić (Sabah) and Ognjen Mimović (Fenerbahce).
In Italian clubs, the only standard player is Mile Svilar, who is Roma's first goalkeeper. Aleksandar Stanković occasionally gets a chance at Inter, while Vanja Milinković-Savić is the reserve goalkeeper at Napoli.
Andrija Maksimović gets very few opportunities in the ranks of Red Bull Leipzig.
With Marko Nikolić in AEK, both Luka Jović and Mijat Gaćinović play an important role, and the same applies to Svetozar Marković and Aleksandar Popović in Slovan Bratislava.
Veljko Simić is one of Sabah's best players and the most deserving of that club's placement in the Champions League, while Filip Kostic, as a newcomer to PSV, is just emerging. Ognjen Mimović currently seems to be out of the plan at Fenerbahçe.
The only Serbian coach who will lead the club in the Champions League will be Marko Nikolić, who led AEK Athens to the title of Greek champion, and then to the Champions League. Nikolić is one of two Serbian coaches who have managed clubs in the Champions League in the last ten years, the other being Vladan Milojević, who managed Crvena zvezda.
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