JURGEN KLOPP look away now, because Uefa’s proposed new Champions League schedule includes group stage games until the end of JANUARY.
Europe’s governing body want to expand the Champions League and Europa League in 2024, but keep the Europa Conference League the same.
Fuming Liverpool boss Klopp said last month that the action-packed schedule was “not right”.
And if things weren’t already hectic enough, Uefa’s wacky new plans would see Champions League and Europa League teams play an extra two games, according to ESPN.
The two competitions are also set to expand from 32 teams to 36.
So instead of European football entering its knockout phase after Christmas, two more rounds of Champions League and Europa League games will be played right up until the very end of January.
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But eight rounds of games spread out over 10 weeks are set to cause chaos to the domestic schedule.
The first round of proposed Europa League games clash with the third round of the Carabao Cup.
Further European matchdays in December and January then clash with the Carabao Cup quarter-finals and semi-finals respectively.
It gets worse, as the final round of European games are proposed for the same time as a full Premier League midweek schedule at the end of January 2025.
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The fixture congestion could reportedly see FA Cup replays from the third round onwards scrapped in order to move the Carabao Cup and Prem games.
The Prem is the only one out of Europe’s big five leagues with a secondary cup competition.
Or, like Liverpool did in 2019 when their Carabao Cup match against Aston Villa clashed with a Club World Cup game, Prem teams could choose to field academy sides.
A worst case scenario, claimed to be seen as the very last resort, is cutting the Prem from 20 teams to 18.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
