The Champions League qualifiers began on Tuesday evening and UEFA are preparing to announce a two-fold rule change for the tournament proper which isn’t going down well with football fans
UEFA are set to confirm a change to the Champions League which would’ve benefitted Arsenal last season – while adding a controversial new rule. The Gunners were forced to play the second legs of their quarter and semi-final clashes with Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain away from home, despite finishing much higher than them in the league phase.
This was because the home and away ties beyond the round of 16 – which Arsenal, Aston Villa and other teams who finished in the top eight had home advantage for – were decided via a random draw. But no more.
UEFA have agreed that for knockout matches, whichever team finished higher will play the second leg at home. This is seen as a greater advantage, especially if the return fixture goes to extra-time and/or penalties.
Arsenal were unable to feed off the Emirates crowd in their second legs against Real and PSG, the latter of whom knocked them out in the semi-finals after staving off a late comeback. There’s still a twist, though, according to Spanish outlet AS.
If a lower-ranked team beats a higher-ranked team, they’d ‘steal’ their place and receive the home advantage in the next round. UEFA have left fans divided over that particular change as, theoretically, the team which finishes 24th and goes through to the last 16 via the play-offs could end up having home advantage over a side that finished much higher in the league phase.
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“Fine except for steal,” one fan wrote on Reddit. “Just rebalance based on the group stage rankings of the remaining teams after each round. It’s not that complicated, and is more fair.”
Another argued: “Not sure what problem this is a solution to. Doesn’t that mean that if the 16th place team beats the first place team, the 16th place team effectively becomes the first placed? So they would leapfrog in the pecking order the teams that finished 3rd and 4th.”
What do you make of the new Champions League rules? Have your say in the comments section.
One rather unforgiving Gunners supporter posted on X, formerly Twitter: “Nice of them to add these new rules after Arsenal get absolutely shafted by the old ones.”
Another asked: “Won’t the second part of this make the first part redundant, in practice?”
The 2025-26 Champions League officially kicked off on Tuesday with the first qualifying round. This season’s final will be played at the Puskas Arena in Budapest, Hungary on Saturday, May 30 while the draw for the league phase will be held on Thursday, August 28, when five Premier League clubs will discover their first eight fixtures.
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