by Real Madrid lost at Liverpool on Wednesday, and in an earlier era that might have been the case. Three Champions League defeats in five tries used to be crippling. Defeats against Lille and AC Milan would have endangered any European campaign. A third, 2-0 at Anfield, could have put an end to it.
Real Madrid, however, is alive and well in the 2024-25 competition precisely because of the new Champions League format that its president hates.
“[The] the new model will have more games and less interest. It’s an absurd competition,” Florentino Pérez said last November.
Now, that’s the only reason his club is still in contention for the title.
The Whites stumbled again on Wednesday, during a busy evening in the northwest of England. They gave in to Liverpool pressure early in the second half. Their only shot on target before injury time was their best chance to equalize – a penalty that Kylian Mbappé failed to convert.
Their obvious excuse is injuries. They have been weakened by a growing list of absentees which now includes Aurélien Tchouaméni, Rodrygo, three key defenders and Vinícius Júnior. But the stars that remain are pale. Mbappé was terrible on Wednesday. The first few game days, the entire team seemed disjointed, disinterested, or both.
And the results were grim. They needed late rallies to beat Stuttgart and Borussia Dortmund. They fell in France, then at home to struggling AC Milan.
For decades, such a start to the Champions League would have put their progression to the round of 16 in the balance. The old format – 32 teams, eight groups of four, top two from each group – was outdated but relatively unforgiving. This allowed some leeway; and as inequality within European football widened, the giants rarely fell. But when they floundered repeatedly, like Manchester United in 2020 and 2023, they perished.
However, in response to pressure from superclubs such as Real Madrid, UEFA expanded and revamped the format. There is now a “championship phase”, from which 24 teams (out of 36) will progress. After five days, three of which remain, Real finds itself squarely on the bubble of 24, with six points, in 24th place.
In other words, the Galactics, preseason favorites have been mediocre; but as things stand, they would still qualify for the early knockout rounds. They would still be favored, regardless of their opponent, to win and advance to the round of 16, as they have done for 27 consecutive seasons.
And their savior would be the new structure of the Champions League which Pérez considers “absurd”.
He says this because he is the main supporter of a European Super League. He was the architect of the failed project in 2021. He was the most powerful force behind attempts to revive the Super League last December. “The Super League is more necessary than ever,” he said last year.
So he hated the compromise, the new UEFA Champions League format, which created more giant-on-giant clashes in the league stage, but watered down the competition.
He reiterated his criticism last Sunday. “The new Champions League format has not proven to be a solution, as we predicted,” Pérez said in a lengthy speech to Real Madrid’s annual general meeting. “It has increased the number of matches but reduced the value of each match. The competition will only arouse the passion of fans at the end and not at the beginning, as expected.”
And then, three days later, his struggling team sparked fans’ passion by losing again.
Real Madrid have been so bad that suddenly their league matches made sense.
The next step is a trip to Atalanta on matchday 6 (December 10). A defeat there, in Bergamo, Italy, would leave The Whites outside watching the knockouts.
But even then, wins in their last two games – against Salzburg and Brest – would almost certainly be enough.
Pérez, in many ways, is right: the new format has devalued these first-round matches, resulting in relatively inconsequential losses. It’s far too merciful.
And in the most ironic of twists, it is his club, the reigning champions, the kings of Europe, Real Madrid, who will likely benefit.
