One-legged ties could be Champions League and Europa League’s future, admits Aleksander Ceferin
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has confessed that in light of the reception to the single-leg knockout ties this season, UEFA could look to implement it permanently in the future. The coronavirus pandemic forced UEFA to change the format of their competition in order to end the season on time.
A global pandemic combined with several months of lockdown had forced the footballing world to think outside the box to figure out a solution to their problems. That saw league seasons compressed and held within the space of a few months although many chose to scrap their league seasons altogether. However, UEFA were forced to take drastic action as they postponed the Euro 2020 and changed the format of both the Champions League and the Europa League.
The single-legged knockout tournaments have been a superhit with fans and critics alike which has seen many calls for it to be made permanent while scrapping the home and away format. But while Aleksander Ceferin admitted that the two-legged format will continue, he also revealed that UEFA will have a discussion to see if they can consider a single-leg competition in the future. The UEFA president also added that the single-legged ties have made for more exciting matches as there is no second leg to fall back on.
"I have to say this system of one match seems more interesting to me than the other system with two-legged matches. It's one of the interesting things that was brought by this pandemic. We had to do a system like that. We had to play this way, but at the end, we see it's a very interesting system. Now, it's quite complicated to place a final eight in the calendar. But we saw that people want exciting matches, that in one match, every team can beat every team in Champions League or the Europa League,” Ceferin said reported Sky Sports.
"So it's something to consider for the future ... I think in September or October, we have to start to seriously speak. (There has been) not so much tactics. If it is one match, if one team scores then the other has to score as soon as possible. If it is two legged system then there is still time to win the next match. More exciting matches for sure but of course we also have to think about the fact that we have less matches and broadcasters (can) say ‘you don’t have as many matches as before, this is different’ so we will have to discuss when this crazy situation ends.”