As we trundle toward the end of the 2025/26 Champions League “League Phase”, social media and football forums are alight with commentary on just how boring it has been. Yes, we have seen some good matches and moments, but the sense of peril is completely gone.
Apart from a couple of teams, like Napoli, all of Europe’s leading lights look set to make it into the next Round of 16 or the Playoffs. Of course, it is quite exciting to see the likes of Barcelona and Manchester City in those playoffs, but it’s also the case that those games take place in mid-February. In short, we went through four months with little drama.
The NFL could offer a blueprint
We can’t help but think UEFA should look at something similar to the NFL’s regular-season format. The 2025 NFL season was an incredible advertisement for the format, with a sense of real danger for every team every week. The betting favourite in the 2026 Super Bowl odds changed hands every few weeks; it was a brilliant season with teams’ fortunes changing every week.
You might argue that the NFL’s structure is similar to the old Champions League Group Stage, i.e., groups of four teams filling out each of the NFL’s divisions. Moreover, you can also say that many of us were bored during the previous years of that format, although some argue that it is down to the seeding system. Nonetheless, the NFL has 32 teams, and the Champions League has 32 teams, so how has the former made every game feel important in the regular season?
Well, the first thing is that the way teams qualify is different. If you win your division, you make it to the Playoffs. That’s easily understandable. You might also get in if you finish second in your group, but that depends on results elsewhere, as only a handful of teams with the best records will get in. In fact, you can finish 3rd and make the Playoffs, but again, that’s only if your record is good enough.
Teams are locked in across the season
What that means is that teams will push to the end of the season, prioritizing every game. You can’t just go through the season in 2nd gear; you’ll be out of the postseason. And even at the top of the groups, home advantage goes to the teams with better records, so they will keep pushing, understanding they aren’t just in competition with their group but with the entire NFL Conference.
To be sure, that would require some out-of-the-box thinking by UEFA, but a return to the four-team group format, with incentives for the best-recorded teams, fewer games, and so on, could really ramp up the sense that something is on the line. Seeding of the big teams remains an issue, but you could also introduce ideas like playing some games outside of your group, such as the champions of England hosting the champions of Spain in a one-off game, rotating it on an annual basis.
These are just ideas, all of which would likely be shot down by the owners of the big clubs and UEFA, but if you just take one glance right now at the League Phase table, you start to wonder what the point of it all was. And this is not just the grumble of one fan, as the alarm bells are ringing with global viewership figures, especially in the early stages of the tournament. Viewership equals money, and that’s a language that everyone in UEFA can understand.