Developing the 2024-27 UEFA Champions League format

Supporting UEFA’s enhancement of the commercial appeal of club competition formats

With a cumulative audience of 166m for the 2022 UEFA Champions League Final — the highest global TV audience for a sporting event during the 2021/22 season — and audiences of 44m and 35m for the UEFA Europa League Final and the UEFA Europa Conference League Final respectively, it’s indisputable that UEFA’s men’s club competitions (UCCs) retain their place amongst the most pre-eminent and sought-after sporting properties in the world⁽¹⁾. But as fan, club, broadcaster and sponsor needs evolve, so too must the UCCs. UEFA’s challenge is to ensure that the strategy behind any evolution of the UCCs strikes the right balance between respecting tradition and nurturing innovation, as well as between maximising commercial value and enhancing sporting appeal.

TEAM’s Strategy department, with its primary focus on driving incremental commercial value for the UCCs, invests significant time and resources to bring a commercial perspective to the extensive and detailed competition format development work that UEFA undertakes. We’re proud to have contributed our commercial expertise to the numerous UCC format enhancements implemented by UEFA over the years — from restructuring the UEFA Champions League to introducing access innovations and launching new competitions.

TEAM’s unique format evaluation methodology

UEFA leads the process of developing competition format proposals. TEAM’s role is to assess these ideas from a commercial perspective by applying our unique in-house evaluation methodology. It’s an approach that we have developed across multiple UCC cycles and which draws upon our in-depth understanding of the intricacies of the UCCs, the UCC sales proposition and the likely impact of format changes on current and potential commercial partners.

Our approach also recognises that UEFA requires the evaluation methodology to be transparent and objective and to demonstrate that the resulting recommendations are based on a clear and robust rationale.

Standardising our evaluation methodology allows us to assess a wide variety of potential changes to the UCCs, as well as benchmark these changes against other properties. There are four key value-drivers that inform TEAM’s commercial recommendations on format changes:

1. Volume and Timing: Perhaps the most significant driver of value is the volume of commercial inventory available for media partners and sponsors. All proposed format changes are therefore evaluated against a range of key metrics, including the number of participating clubs, the number of matchweeks, the number of individual matches, and the number of so-called “live match opportunities” (individual broadcast slots). In addition, ensuring a consistent spread of matchweeks across the calendar year, optimising the timing of key competition phases, and selecting the optimal kick-off times each matchnight all have the potential to deliver an uplift in commercial value.
2. Quality: The biggest competition is not necessarily the best. Therefore, TEAM assigns values to potential participating clubs — using metrics such as club coefficients, squad market values, and club social media followings — to assess how different format changes (in particular to the access system) impact the overall quality level of the competition. The aim is to create high quality and high appeal competitions, as well as to select a format that minimises the number of mismatches and increases the opportunities for fixtures between highly-ranked clubs.
3. Meaning and Excitement: To enhance fan engagement, we consider factors such as the potential for dynamic season narratives and the extent to which a proposed format minimises the risk of clubs qualifying for subsequent stages too quickly or, conversely, being eliminated prematurely. This allows UEFA to maximise the number of clubs fighting for access to the next phase and to increase the number of matches with progression and elimination still on the line.
4. Domestic Relevance: To broaden the global appeal of the UCCs and extend representation to fans in as many countries as possible, we consider factors such as the potential spread of clubs from smaller markets (as well as from the most commercially valuable media markets), the variety of markets represented, and how far into the competition a club from each market is likely to progress.

An analysis of the likely impact of competition format changes on all four drivers helps us to assess which format changes will create the most value for the commercial partners and provide fans and clubs with more competitive, fair and engaging competitions.

Evaluating format changes for the 2024-27 cycle

The process of evaluating competition format enhancements starts well in advance of each UCC cycle. For the 2024-27 cycle, the evaluation process started almost three years before the start of the sales cycle and almost five years before the first ball is even scheduled to be kicked.

First UEFA reviewed the existing 2021-24 UCC formats and TEAM helped to articulate the commercial strengths and weaknesses. Next, UEFA prepared and presented several exploratory format proposals, taking into account the interests of key stakeholder groups, such as the clubs, the ECA and the fans. Our involvement showcased the benefit of continuity — not only was TEAM able to apply a tried-and-tested evaluation methodology to the innovative format options identified by UEFA, but we were able to rely on the depth of our long-term relationships with UEFA’s commercial partners and the wider marketplace. This allowed us to focus on those changes with the potential to provide optimal value whilst avoiding disrupting the existing format value.

This stage included significant quantitative and qualitative analysis, such as running simulations and forecasts to assess the likelihood of early qualification to the knock-out phase in each format type. As a result, we were able to produce a shortlist of the most commercially-optimal format ideas. From TEAM’s commercial recommendations, UEFA was ultimately able to identify the new League System model as the format with the highest commercial value and sporting appeal for all three UEFA men’s club competitions.

Once the League System model was determined, TEAM helped UEFA define and perfect the specific details of competition access, structure and scheduling — 32 or 36 teams? Which competitions should have a higher increase in matchweeks? On which weekdays should games take place? Every decision was carefully weighed and influenced by the value-drivers, as shown in the graphic below.

Successful sales start indicates additional value in the 2024-27 UCC formats

It naturally takes time for any changes to such well-established competitions to be accepted by stakeholders, the media, the commercial partners, fans and the wider public. However, initial media rights sales for the 2024-27 cycle in the UK and France saw a significant uplift in media rights fees – a strong indication of the recognition by media partners of the additional value created by the new competition formats.

As Maxime Saada, President of French broadcaster Canal+ explained in an interview with L’Équipe: “They [UEFA and TEAM] won the bet but they did the job. With their new Champions League formula, there will be more French clubs qualified directly [three compared to two currently], more European match nights, more matches…all of this justifies the inflation. When federations and leagues focus on the development of their product, when they focus on improving its quality, this is reflected in the price paid by broadcasters.”

By consistently applying the proven value-drivers to its commercial evaluation of every potential UCC format change, TEAM is able to make recommendations that can be trusted by UEFA and the clubs and to play a key role in the continuing success of Europe’s leading club competitions.

⁽¹⁾ SOURCE: UEFA UCC Viewership monitoring | Global live viewership 21/22, including TV, Streaming and Out of home (OOH)