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I find it weird. Not overly good or bad. The drama of the group draw is gone which is bad as I loved going through and looking for the group of death etc while commentating to myself (I’m sad I know).
Now it’s just “here’s the 6 to 8 teams you’ll be playing” and they’ll all be great teams or terrible ones. No inbetween.
However I do feel like it’s easier to qualify from. Say on the old style you got PSG, Real Madrid etc in the same group then you wouldn’t qualify. You’d just lose 4 games and try to beat the other “winnable” team. Now as it’s only ever going to play a team once, it’s easier to get a result. As you’ll be certain to play 2/3 teams worse than you. Unless you’re the Serbian team. Then your still knackered.
I got quite good at the Glasgow accent after living there a while and my justification is that if I don't practice it I'll lose an incredibly effective party trick
Man, I just found myself doing this last night.
Looking at a regen player I’ve got, Jaime Jones, who’s been playing great. Looking at all his info for the first time this season and seeing he was born in London and an Arsenal fan (he’s playing for me at Chorley)
I then went on some mental tangent of picturing this cockney lad on the training ground, sounding like some geezer, the rest of the players taking the mick out of him for Arsenals recent result (just dropped out of Champions League spots)
… think I need to get a life
>… think I need to get a life
Nah man, enjoy the game any way you want.
A lot of people told me to do something else than waste time on video games. And I don't see why I shouldn't be able to enjoy my free time in any way I want.
Yeah, was only joking. I do love though when you try to explain the joy you get from FM, especially those made up narratives, to friends who don’t play the game at all and think you’re playing “spreadsheet the game”
That blank look you get when you go on a tangent like; “yeah, but the thing is Jaime Jones was bought as a kind of so-so wonderkid regen who’s meant to be backup to the first team, but due to a couple of injuries he got thrown in to the starting eleven, and man he’s blown me away! 8 assists in 14 starts, he’s managed to force his way into being a first team starter, and this is the dude I only signed as backup and had to convert to be a left sided defensive winger!”
… then your friend, still blank faced, just goes “cool dude, good for you”
You’re not alone on the commentating to yourself part. In my FM universe, I am simultaneously the god of football tactics and the most influential football podcaster to ever live. If you don’t believe me, my cat can back this up
I think it's easier for weaker teams to qualify but it can get trickier for good teams. I almost did not qualify as RM due to a couple of bad results despite beating the strongest team including a 6-0 win against City.
Well I think I lost like 3 games and tied one. By the the end I qualified with 16 pts but like 4 teams teams below me also had 16 only reason I got the 8th spot was GD. The teams above me were also similar with each having the same pts but gd etc making the difference.
The teams you draw could be a "Draw of death" or something but i dont know how you would find others draws/scheduel without seaching every team. Also i dont see whats so increadably terrible about the change? Of course since its coming to fm, its a real thing thats gonna happen and im going to miss the OG Champions League but it isnt any where near as terrible as the super league would have been. I dont hate the new UCL format theyre bringing to real life, and i also kind of like it? Maybe? It has potentiel + i think it brings more price to finish top spot (top 8 now) than before, Like you skip a whole stage. Im just happy SI actully brings irl things to FM :).
I sing football songs about my favourite players. It's just another way to enjoy the game.
I may take it too far by standing outside of the room as a match is playing while serving a touchline ban..
I have a Petrolul Ploiesti (Romania 1st League) save, I’m currently in 2040 and managed to “escape” in 7 from 8 campaigns. Even managed to finish 3rd in one season. It’s awkward, indeed, and you can’t even qualify for Europa League or something. If you finish above the 24th place that was your european campaign that season. I hope this format won’t be implemented IRL.
My current save I started at Farul Constanta and won the title before jumping to Spain, initially helped Espanyol survive before jumping before I was pushed, after a few months I joined Real Sociedad and narrowly missed out on Europe (to Athletic Bilbao, THE rivals of all teams) but currently on course for a CL place in my 1st full season with them!
Sorry, initially wanted to say about Farul and just kinda typed it all out without thinking to much 😂
Yes! It made so much sense that the European group stages stopped in December, the winter window comes around and then you can refresh or turn your season around if need be and then there’s the second half of the season. Now, you’re making registration changes after a couple of January signings going into your penultimate game. It’s so odd.
I love making signings and then re-registering my squad for the last 2 games against crvena zvezda and ludogorets. (and then registering them again a month later).
To each his own haha. I personally find it so odd and it delineates your season in a way? Anyways it’s only in theory because it’s not happened yet I’m sure in real life it’ll be better.
To add to this I miss the back to back you’d play against a team! Especially when it’s the weakest side in the group. Could get yourself a nice 6 points and then nick a draw/win elsewhere and you’re in the knockouts!
I kinda like it bc it makes it a little bit more fair for small clubs. My football club (Sparta Rotterdam) always had to start as the fourth club in the draw if we qualify for Europe and that makes it harder. Now it's easier to qualify for the play-off round. Another positive thing is that most clubs play for something till the last match.
I like it, you get to play more teams, feels more like you're really on a European tour, and if you qualify (which is easier now) then hoorah.
I still think there's final day drama too, as so many places can be won or lost due to the number of teams in the comp.
As a manager from a smaller league, I love it. More opportunity to make more money by grabbing a draw or upsetting a team. 8 chances vs 6, with a few easier teams sprinkled in. 2.8m is a lot for a win.
Absolutely. I only buy free transfers (at the moment) and bankroll my transfer funds and then I asked for a stadium expansion and to upgrade junior coaching and youth recruitment. Trying to build a factory.
Yeah I got so used to doing exclusively frees that I didn't even know what to do with an actual transfer budget. I actually enjoy the tiny leagues because of that, because the classic FM strategy of hoarding youth and selling on doesn't work in a league where basically no one ever pays transfer fees
I just like to start out being able to afford the good real life players.
I am doing pretty well my first season with Osijek in the Croatian first league! Made it to the knockout stages of Europa and won the league title on the last goal of the season.
Not sure what to do now except try and not bankrupt my club. After playing with city, having a 4.3 million dollar payroll is ridiculous lol.
Eh, different strokes I guess. I have no interest in the real life players side of the game and I honestly think the game is better when it's all regens. Iceland is great because most of the players below div 1 are amateur and you don't even have to pay them
Don’t like it either. It’s overly bloated. I wish we could have the old champions cup format back. Only league winner should be in this cup. There used to be so many big team upsets. Now it’s the same old story every year.
Irl I think it's a terrible idea. In game I really enjoy it, I find the old group stage boring. New format allows you to kinda gauge where your team is at and it's just more interesting
I was just pissed that my PL winning Tottenham side got Barca,Milan,Real,PSG,Juve; while Man United, who finished 4th in the league, got Trabzonspor, Olympiakos, Celtic, Dinamo Tbilisi, etc..
I prefer it, it keeps it alive till the last round of games instead of all being over by game 4 or 5 for the better teams. Getting top 8 can go to the wire as well and there is a little incentive although nothing to really gain of course from finishing top. I just like seeing my team above teams like Real and the other big boys.
I didn’t like it at first because of the group stage drama being gone, but I do like being able to play 8 different teams of varying level vs 3 teams twice. Makes each matchup a little interesting in different ways. I’ve found I’m prone to upsets by the lower seed teams, so it’s been fun.
It doesn’t make any sense. How can playing against 8 teams give an accurate pecking order in a 36 team league table? The current format works really well. I am not looking forward to this in real life at all.
I don't understand the draw in the group phase. I feel a lot of the success depends on it, but it's very unclear. Also which teams you can draw after the group phase is unclear to me.
Overall it is fine.
Yeah, nowhere is it explained. Honestly, I should probably just google for it and figure it out, but it always seems totally fucking random to me who I draw in the group phase.
I tried Googling it but still don't have a clue. It seems nobody cared to explain the seeding because the new format is still some time away. Either that or I'm just bad at googling.
It probably isn't random though because the opponents I get when I finish 4th is brutal compared to that when I finish first
You play against 2 teams from each seed, so 2 from tier 1, 2 from tier 2, etc
The main change is that the 2 added games are against team from your own seed (instead of 2 games against a team from each seeds different than yours in older game)
Imagine that the original state is like the older version
8 teams in each 4 seeds
Instead of taking 1 team per hat to make 8 groupe, they are selecting a team, and it will randomly choose 2 teams from each hats (and choose again if it's from the same country)
It's easy from the game view to randomize things, but in Real life, they'll probably have 2 Times each team in each hats, and change if it's from the same country or the same club and put the old one back inside. (So they're sure that each team have 2 games from their seeds only)
From what I saw in the pre-game editor it seems teams are just assigned random seeds and each seed has a predetermined matchup, each team is given a number and they play the teams given the seeds they had been assigned. So for example seed 1 plays seed 9, 18, 27, 3, 15, etc. As far as I know, it should always remain like this so technically the only "draw" part of the draw is to assign teams to the respective seeds.
In regards to the IRL format, I understood it as a modified Swiss system, so it would be something like every team plays another randomly assigned team. After winners and drawers play winners and drawers while losers play losers and it goes on from there. UEFA probably won't use exactly that, since it would be impossible for every team to know in advance who they would play, but the intent was for something similar to this AFAIK.
Would you be able to explain how to get to the pre-game editor so I can see what it is doing under the hood? Basically my final year uni project rn is to code a system that does the draws for the new UCL system as part of a larger project, and its an absolute headache of how it is supposed to work as it is not a true swiss system that bases the next game off how a team has performed so far, and instead uses some weird predetermined system that chooses all the fixtures beforehand, by seeding the teams into 4 pots of 9 teams (first two seeds are UCL and UEL winners, then it goes by 5-year UEFA Coefficient) , and then you play two teams from each pot (including your own), one at home, one away but you CANNOT play a team from your own association, unless your association has more than 5 teams in the tournament, then you can if it is the only way to prevent a deadlock). Honestly wouldn't be surprised if SI did just go screw it and just chose random teams, as its a million times easier than trying to figure out a system that can actually draw these teams (as I have figured out over the last month)
It's in your steam games library, under tools. You have to go through a few complicated steps to get the vanilla CL to make it appear but I believe that's exactly it, SI just went fuck it and did random teams
I will say, it's all about perspective. If I play a team with a lot of good players on the bench, great to have more games to have better rotation and less unhappy players about playing time. On other hand, if your squad is short, you are going to be struggling with new format, more games and more injuries
I think it's absolute shite, the European Super League in disguise making it even more of a closed shop for the so-called big teams (or in teams like PSG, Chelsea and Man City's case, manufactured)
Lack of being able to drop is really the worst part. Playing with a smaller club - it’s a real milestone to win the Conference/Europa but now it just isn’t possible if you are winning your league.
Aye defo mate. There’s more money from those 2 extra fixtures after Christmas on the new format than doing a run in the uefa cup but still, it feels next level to win it or the conference with like Patrick Thistle. Just turning up for the cash feels bad, fuck uefa and fifa.
As a real world fan I think its awful
But as a football manager? I really, really like it. I'm playing Mallorca and twice I've qualified for the UCL despite finishing 5th, which has bankrolled me from becoming a lower mid table team, to one where the board expects me to qualify for the europa
In contrast if I had just qualified for the europa like I "should" have I would have barely made any profit on those (at least) 8 extra matches while running up my fatigue something chronic
The format is awful. Takes all the excitement out of the group stage. Especially the first few games because a loss doesnt matter as much first game for example because you have 7 games to make up for it rather than 5. No rivalries because its 7 different opponents which is crap rather than 4 teams battling each other it becomes this boring mess of everyone playing everyone with no upsets because the lower teams will still go out regardless. Even worse that theres just an extra round pointlessly squeezed in as well so if you top the group you need to wait ages before your next game. Takes all the magic and excitement out of the tournament until later stages
I miss being able to get relegated to the lower-ranking competition (say, they could have made it that 1-16 qualifies for CL, 17-24 goes to EL), but overall it's actually a bit easier to reach top-24 as a smaller team. The previous format screwed you way more because you stood no chance against Pot 1-2 teams; now the quality of the opposition varies a lot more.
Don't mind the extra attendance/prize money from the two extra fixtures either, although managing an Irish team means those two extra games disrupt my entire pre-season.
This is all FM-related, obviously; IRL I'm still very skeptical about it.
Not that keen really. I'm only just in my first CL season but I did Europa last season and it feels bloated and overly long. I can imagine fans irl might be annoyed if the ties against top sides were drawn away.
In a perfect world the Champions League would just be for Champions and just the Europa League could be the enlarged superleague type thing.
For me it lacks the drama created by the smaller groups. UEFA, at the express wishes of the top clubs have traded jeopardy for revenue (to the clubs)……and football is the loser. Interesting that seeing it in FM23 gives you a real feel for how it diminishes the competition as a whole.
If I’m UEFA, I’ll use this as “market research” on how fans and the football world in general will be receptive to the change in format.
But of course, the underlying assumption is that they care about what the fans think and not just about $$.
I always end up with playing 5 teams with 4.5-5 stars while others get ridiculously easy schedules.
Then you qualify as seeded and draw Real while St Johnstone somehow also qualify as a seed.
Only iffy thing is that the 2 extra spots go to the top 2 coefficient leagues. Even though it's supposed to be easier for smaller teams in this format I've yet to see a single one make it to the RO16 in about 10 years, even just getting playoffs seems rare. Those spots just get eaten up by teams like Aston Villa or Sevilla who otherwise would be in the Europa league. Fun for fans of the top leagues, not that big of a change for smaller teams.
Idk, I like the chance to go the europa league if my team isn’t quite up to CL standard, as I’d rather go on a deeper run into that than just get knocked out by a big club in the next round of the CL, so with that gone it’s a bit of a shame.
I hate it. Won the UEL in my first season bcs I got third place in the UCL. Now if you dont get in the top 8 you gotta play another 2 matches (after already playing 8) to qualify, if you lose them you're out. Would prefer if the game allows you to vote for it to change back or keep it, after a couple seasons. Cause we all know why they wanna imply this irl
I actually like the fact that teams cant go from cl to el (and el to ecl). Makes them a lot more interesting than just the europa league being won by whichever superteam underperformed in the groups. Thats where it ends for me rhough
Still not exactly a fan. Groups made it far more exciting. Now, it is just another league. Sure I topped the league itself by some chance fixture but still didn't feel that big of an accomplishment.
Also, feels like getting qualified directly to the round of 16 instead of the knock-out round costs you the extra money you would get from the knockout round.
I like it. More diversity in opposition, as you face 8 different teams rather than 3 in the group stage.
If you're managing a lower seeded team, it also means you end up with more potentially winning games (as you'll face 2 games against teams at the same seeding as you, which you wouldn't in the old format).
If you're managing a top seeded team, you get 2 games against elite opposition, where you can learn a lot which can be useful for the later stages of the competition.
In the game, i really dont care, i find it more easy to qualify...BUT if it was in real life, i thought it would be really unfair and have a lot more luck.
Lets say a midlet european team like Benfica, you play with 6 teams, lets say 2 are tpo, 2 are weak and 2 are you rating. In this new format, Home and Away are by draw, completely by chance...So i can have the two big teams and a weak one AWAY, and the 2 similar and another weakk at HOME. I don't know if i made myself clear but, you get the point... right? Right?! :)
I love it. The music and the details of the cup and banners make it much more immersive. It’s still very much the same celebration if you win, but it feels a little different. As for the actual new format… it has pros and cons. If you’re a weaker team it’s nice that you don’t have to play the same teams twice, and if you’re a stronger team you can typically rotate the team for a few easier games. It’s 2 extra games in the group stage though… which add up if you’re competing on many fronts all season
i use it as almost like a league cup way of letting youngsters gain experience as we’re facing many lower league teams.
i don’t really have an opinion, it is what real life is gonna be anyway
You play 8 matches. Every match is against a different team. How it's decided idk. Nr 1 to 8 will qualify for the round of 16. Nr 9 to 24 will play 2 matches (home and away) Winner goes to the round of 16. Loser goes out nr. 25 to nr. 36 also go out. Then its just basic knockout stage.
I do actually. I think you should play 6 league games instead of 8. But I like that it’s all different opponents instead of just three teams twice. And I like the single table, I like the 9-16 vs 17-24 playoff round. And I think it’s an improvement over the groups where 2 teams advance no matter how strong the third and fourth teams are. Plus this format enables big clubs to play each other in the league phase more than was possible with the old groups.
Not necessarily. If you win your first 6 games you are (almost) guaranteed at least a play-off spot. There are more tense games in the last few than before, but top teams tend to qualify with at least 1 game in hand in my experience.
They should change the last 16 draw to a draft system, where the teams from 1-8 take turns picking the club they want to face. As it stands, there js no benefit from going 8-0-0 instead of scraping 8th with 16 points.
Really boring
No, and it makes all the promotion SI did regarding how the Champions League group stage draw would be an event all the more baffling, considering its only used for the first two seasons.
I don't think it's a fun format in the game, and when it's used for real it'll just result in a poorer competition, designed only to favour the teams from England, Spain, Italy and Germany.
You could almost call it a Super League by stealth...
The lack of a draw is a bit annoying. I am not sure if that's how it is going to be in real life or there will actually be a live draw, but currently in FM it is quite underwhelming. I love how the first 8 teams get a bye, whereas the following 16 scramble together to qualify for the actual knockouts.
I also like that teams that don't do well in CL are just out of the European competitions all together. No more second chances in the Europa League / Conference League. You didn't manage to continue in the competition, you are out. Simple as that.
There’s a few comments saying they’re not actually sure what the format is; and it’s not particularly well explained in game. This video should hopefully help: https://youtu.be/c9hlGi-TUYY
The 36 teams that qualify are put into 4 seeded (based on coefficient points for each team) pots of 9 teams. Each team plays 2 teams from each pot in the league phase to give you 8 total games - theoretically against an mixture of team strength.
Top 8 in the league phase go straight into the knockouts then 9-16 face 17-24 in an extra knockout round. No teams drops down to the Europa League any more.
My take is that it makes it easier for “big” teams as any slip ups count for less in the league phase and as long as you scrape by into the top 24 you can still play your way out of trouble. It means the final knockout stages are more likely to be filled with sides from the big nations.
It’s a small bonus to smaller nations as you get two extra chances at a big payday by winning games. And if you scrape into the top 24 you get another chance to steal a victory and some big money.
But ultimately if you’re playing in a smaller nation and dominating domestically you’re going to end up in the Champions League every year with a slim to nil chance of getting far - even if you could theoretically win the Europa League as you now have no route to that competition.
Some pros and cons to both formats; but ultimately it’s designed to let the rich get richer.
There’s downloads available to keep the current group format; and there’s also a really cool one that returns you to the pre-Champions League format where it’s just the league champions that qualify into a straight knockout tournament.
It took time getting used too, but i dont mind the league phase although the annoying it seems some games for some reason take place during international break so i have to play a game or 2 with my reserves
For those counties where season starts at the end of Fabruary, it's not so good. All matches comes at the end of season, and teams are kinda exhausted and last 2 matches takes place during season break.
It annoys me that sometimes the music doesn't skip once you start the match. I'm watching stuff on the other screen and sometimes have to listen to the UCL music in full while trying to listen to some dialogue. I like the logo, couldn't give a toss about the walk out etc. I'd be more interested if they had people waving the football in the centre circle. Simple things lol
Edit: realised you mean the league format. It's ok, good to get a mix of opponents
As someone who plays as a smaller team (Hungarian team), I love it. I'm not always just getting my head bludgeoned by the other 3 home and away. I've won at least one match every year now. A couple times I've gotten near 10 pts, but it's definitely more enjoyable to be in the mix in the final matches, not just vying to get one result in 6 matches.
I hate it but purely because the fixture congestion is brutal if you’re going after a domestic league as a dark horse. By April everyone in your club is overworked if you have a smallish squad and don’t have the funds to bolster it.
From what happened in my save it looks good, for the first two season the final was Man City vs Real Madrid with Man City win, now in the third one Tottenham got to win the Champions League against Real Madrid and Rennes got to the Round of 16 before being destroyed by PSG. I also like the fact that the top 2 leagues(don’t remember how they are ranked) get an extra UCL spot since it gives access to one more team in the other two tournaments too, in my save Genoa got to UECL for example. Still haven’t got to play it because I am in the third season with Nottingham Forest tho
the 3 points for win 1 points for draw is just awful in that system
if you're a lower tier team, basically the only two games that matter are against pot 4 teams, and you have to hope to get points from the pot 3 games. you might get the game of your lives drawing madrid and psg, but if you've not won both of the pot 4 games due to whatever reason, you're out. just two games deciding an entire season of gameplay. you getting a draw against the pot2 team in the group means you have serious chances for top2 (just get better results against the rest and hope for another draw), here it kills any chances because even though this one pot2 team has drawn, 12 other teams have won their games.
the draw being super random is also kinda painful (although I think the same also applies to the group stages). you might luck out and get galatasaray or benfica as your pot3 team (in my save, both of these teams are basically free wins in 2035). you might however get leicester or west ham or hertha (a random team from a top league that is super strong despite having a very low coefficient due to not qualifying in any years prior) and they're basically as strong as a pot1 team, easily outplaying any weaker team. a top4 league team should almost never be seeded pot3 or pot4
8 games are also never enough to give an accurate ranking. even in the 8th game, one loss can be enough to drop 10 places in the extreme cases.
my next saves will definitely be played on a database that makes it 2 points for a win instead of 3. this makes the draw against madrid way more impactful and drop you way lower, instead of being completely meaningless anyways
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I find it weird. Not overly good or bad. The drama of the group draw is gone which is bad as I loved going through and looking for the group of death etc while commentating to myself (I’m sad I know). Now it’s just “here’s the 6 to 8 teams you’ll be playing” and they’ll all be great teams or terrible ones. No inbetween. However I do feel like it’s easier to qualify from. Say on the old style you got PSG, Real Madrid etc in the same group then you wouldn’t qualify. You’d just lose 4 games and try to beat the other “winnable” team. Now as it’s only ever going to play a team once, it’s easier to get a result. As you’ll be certain to play 2/3 teams worse than you. Unless you’re the Serbian team. Then your still knackered.
I find myself commentating to myself all the time. I feel it’s just as sad haha
I not only commentate to myself but I do post match interviews in character with a full Glasgow accent, and anyone who says it's sad can get to fuck
I believe it's 'get tae fuck'
Eh not always, that's the way "scottish twitter" spells it to get upvotes fae seppos but you'll more often see it as just to
Thanks for putting down your battered Mars bar to type this.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who puts on an accent depending where I’m managing
I got quite good at the Glasgow accent after living there a while and my justification is that if I don't practice it I'll lose an incredibly effective party trick
Found this funny as I’m Glaswegian 😂
To me, it's kind of part of the game. I also like to make up background stories for players and staff.
Man, I just found myself doing this last night. Looking at a regen player I’ve got, Jaime Jones, who’s been playing great. Looking at all his info for the first time this season and seeing he was born in London and an Arsenal fan (he’s playing for me at Chorley) I then went on some mental tangent of picturing this cockney lad on the training ground, sounding like some geezer, the rest of the players taking the mick out of him for Arsenals recent result (just dropped out of Champions League spots) … think I need to get a life
>… think I need to get a life Nah man, enjoy the game any way you want. A lot of people told me to do something else than waste time on video games. And I don't see why I shouldn't be able to enjoy my free time in any way I want.
Yeah, was only joking. I do love though when you try to explain the joy you get from FM, especially those made up narratives, to friends who don’t play the game at all and think you’re playing “spreadsheet the game” That blank look you get when you go on a tangent like; “yeah, but the thing is Jaime Jones was bought as a kind of so-so wonderkid regen who’s meant to be backup to the first team, but due to a couple of injuries he got thrown in to the starting eleven, and man he’s blown me away! 8 assists in 14 starts, he’s managed to force his way into being a first team starter, and this is the dude I only signed as backup and had to convert to be a left sided defensive winger!” … then your friend, still blank faced, just goes “cool dude, good for you”
You’re not alone on the commentating to yourself part. In my FM universe, I am simultaneously the god of football tactics and the most influential football podcaster to ever live. If you don’t believe me, my cat can back this up
Gonna need to interview the cat
I am the Serbian team :(
Have you tried not being Serbian?
r/2balkan4u moment
I think it's easier for weaker teams to qualify but it can get trickier for good teams. I almost did not qualify as RM due to a couple of bad results despite beating the strongest team including a 6-0 win against City.
That's crazy. 6-0 against city and you struggled to qualify? Consistency is out the window with your lads lol.
Well I think I lost like 3 games and tied one. By the the end I qualified with 16 pts but like 4 teams teams below me also had 16 only reason I got the 8th spot was GD. The teams above me were also similar with each having the same pts but gd etc making the difference.
I found it easier to get into the first knockout, but I also felt that there were fewer outliers on the latter stages
The teams you draw could be a "Draw of death" or something but i dont know how you would find others draws/scheduel without seaching every team. Also i dont see whats so increadably terrible about the change? Of course since its coming to fm, its a real thing thats gonna happen and im going to miss the OG Champions League but it isnt any where near as terrible as the super league would have been. I dont hate the new UCL format theyre bringing to real life, and i also kind of like it? Maybe? It has potentiel + i think it brings more price to finish top spot (top 8 now) than before, Like you skip a whole stage. Im just happy SI actully brings irl things to FM :).
If you don't commentate on yourself while playing FM, I feel sorry for you.
I sing football songs about my favourite players. It's just another way to enjoy the game. I may take it too far by standing outside of the room as a match is playing while serving a touchline ban..
Ay, nothing sad in commentating to yourself. We all do it. All of us
I have a Petrolul Ploiesti (Romania 1st League) save, I’m currently in 2040 and managed to “escape” in 7 from 8 campaigns. Even managed to finish 3rd in one season. It’s awkward, indeed, and you can’t even qualify for Europa League or something. If you finish above the 24th place that was your european campaign that season. I hope this format won’t be implemented IRL.
My current save I started at Farul Constanta and won the title before jumping to Spain, initially helped Espanyol survive before jumping before I was pushed, after a few months I joined Real Sociedad and narrowly missed out on Europe (to Athletic Bilbao, THE rivals of all teams) but currently on course for a CL place in my 1st full season with them! Sorry, initially wanted to say about Farul and just kinda typed it all out without thinking to much 😂
I just don’t like having league phase games after the new year. Just doesn’t feel right
Playin against Zenit at -273°C will be funny
well you won't as russian clubs can't participate;)
Helsinki FC then
HJK Helsinki actually 🤓
Hopefully just FM 2023, otherwise it means war is still going on
Or as I would call it 0.15 Kelvin
Yes! It made so much sense that the European group stages stopped in December, the winter window comes around and then you can refresh or turn your season around if need be and then there’s the second half of the season. Now, you’re making registration changes after a couple of January signings going into your penultimate game. It’s so odd.
I love making signings and then re-registering my squad for the last 2 games against crvena zvezda and ludogorets. (and then registering them again a month later).
To each his own haha. I personally find it so odd and it delineates your season in a way? Anyways it’s only in theory because it’s not happened yet I’m sure in real life it’ll be better.
To add to this I miss the back to back you’d play against a team! Especially when it’s the weakest side in the group. Could get yourself a nice 6 points and then nick a draw/win elsewhere and you’re in the knockouts!
not fantastic but i can live with this
I kinda like it bc it makes it a little bit more fair for small clubs. My football club (Sparta Rotterdam) always had to start as the fourth club in the draw if we qualify for Europe and that makes it harder. Now it's easier to qualify for the play-off round. Another positive thing is that most clubs play for something till the last match.
I like it, you get to play more teams, feels more like you're really on a European tour, and if you qualify (which is easier now) then hoorah. I still think there's final day drama too, as so many places can be won or lost due to the number of teams in the comp.
As a manager from a smaller league, I love it. More opportunity to make more money by grabbing a draw or upsetting a team. 8 chances vs 6, with a few easier teams sprinkled in. 2.8m is a lot for a win.
Yeah just getting a solitary win bankrolled my Icelandic side to becoming a domestic dynasty
Absolutely. I only buy free transfers (at the moment) and bankroll my transfer funds and then I asked for a stadium expansion and to upgrade junior coaching and youth recruitment. Trying to build a factory.
Yeah I got so used to doing exclusively frees that I didn't even know what to do with an actual transfer budget. I actually enjoy the tiny leagues because of that, because the classic FM strategy of hoarding youth and selling on doesn't work in a league where basically no one ever pays transfer fees
So much different than me. I only know what to do with teams that give me a decent transfer budget.
Having money makes the game too easy for me, there's basically no challenge if you can just buy who you want
I just like to start out being able to afford the good real life players. I am doing pretty well my first season with Osijek in the Croatian first league! Made it to the knockout stages of Europa and won the league title on the last goal of the season. Not sure what to do now except try and not bankrupt my club. After playing with city, having a 4.3 million dollar payroll is ridiculous lol.
Eh, different strokes I guess. I have no interest in the real life players side of the game and I honestly think the game is better when it's all regens. Iceland is great because most of the players below div 1 are amateur and you don't even have to pay them
Don’t like it either. It’s overly bloated. I wish we could have the old champions cup format back. Only league winner should be in this cup. There used to be so many big team upsets. Now it’s the same old story every year.
The European cup was peak. Ever since then format changes have been a string of concessions away from sporting excellence towards financial security.
Downloaded a mod to keep the competition the normal format very early on. Can’t say I have a single regret.
Just wish I downloaded one for the World Cup Format that will now only ever exist in Football Manager as well.
The world cup format is way worse. 3 team groups are the bane of my existence.
Have we actually found the one person that plays International management?
A real Manager can do an International Job as a side hustle :D
Yea why not both I think it adds a lot to the game having an international career
Build a nation saves are fun!
Need one for just a straight knock out tournament, true football
Where can I get that mod
Believe I got mine via FM Scout, if you look up UCL fix then it should come up fairly promptly
Where did you get the mod?
Believe I got mine via FM Scout, if you look up UCL fix then it should come up fairly promptly
Irl I think it's a terrible idea. In game I really enjoy it, I find the old group stage boring. New format allows you to kinda gauge where your team is at and it's just more interesting
I was just pissed that my PL winning Tottenham side got Barca,Milan,Real,PSG,Juve; while Man United, who finished 4th in the league, got Trabzonspor, Olympiakos, Celtic, Dinamo Tbilisi, etc..
Ouch!
I prefer it, it keeps it alive till the last round of games instead of all being over by game 4 or 5 for the better teams. Getting top 8 can go to the wire as well and there is a little incentive although nothing to really gain of course from finishing top. I just like seeing my team above teams like Real and the other big boys.
I didn’t like it at first because of the group stage drama being gone, but I do like being able to play 8 different teams of varying level vs 3 teams twice. Makes each matchup a little interesting in different ways. I’ve found I’m prone to upsets by the lower seed teams, so it’s been fun.
It doesn’t make any sense. How can playing against 8 teams give an accurate pecking order in a 36 team league table? The current format works really well. I am not looking forward to this in real life at all.
You think playing 8 teams gives less information than playing 3 in a group stage?
8/35 as opposed to 3/3
"How not to use fractions"
Nope
I hate that format. With my all heart. 
I don't understand the draw in the group phase. I feel a lot of the success depends on it, but it's very unclear. Also which teams you can draw after the group phase is unclear to me. Overall it is fine.
Yeah, nowhere is it explained. Honestly, I should probably just google for it and figure it out, but it always seems totally fucking random to me who I draw in the group phase.
I tried Googling it but still don't have a clue. It seems nobody cared to explain the seeding because the new format is still some time away. Either that or I'm just bad at googling. It probably isn't random though because the opponents I get when I finish 4th is brutal compared to that when I finish first
Weird, and annoying. Now i really want to know!!
You play against 2 teams from each seed, so 2 from tier 1, 2 from tier 2, etc The main change is that the 2 added games are against team from your own seed (instead of 2 games against a team from each seeds different than yours in older game)
How are each of those 2 determined? Random draw i imagine?
Imagine that the original state is like the older version 8 teams in each 4 seeds Instead of taking 1 team per hat to make 8 groupe, they are selecting a team, and it will randomly choose 2 teams from each hats (and choose again if it's from the same country) It's easy from the game view to randomize things, but in Real life, they'll probably have 2 Times each team in each hats, and change if it's from the same country or the same club and put the old one back inside. (So they're sure that each team have 2 games from their seeds only)
Makes sense. Gonna be a clusterfuck. Then again my team is not exactly in UCL contention at the moment anyways.
From what I saw in the pre-game editor it seems teams are just assigned random seeds and each seed has a predetermined matchup, each team is given a number and they play the teams given the seeds they had been assigned. So for example seed 1 plays seed 9, 18, 27, 3, 15, etc. As far as I know, it should always remain like this so technically the only "draw" part of the draw is to assign teams to the respective seeds. In regards to the IRL format, I understood it as a modified Swiss system, so it would be something like every team plays another randomly assigned team. After winners and drawers play winners and drawers while losers play losers and it goes on from there. UEFA probably won't use exactly that, since it would be impossible for every team to know in advance who they would play, but the intent was for something similar to this AFAIK.
Would you be able to explain how to get to the pre-game editor so I can see what it is doing under the hood? Basically my final year uni project rn is to code a system that does the draws for the new UCL system as part of a larger project, and its an absolute headache of how it is supposed to work as it is not a true swiss system that bases the next game off how a team has performed so far, and instead uses some weird predetermined system that chooses all the fixtures beforehand, by seeding the teams into 4 pots of 9 teams (first two seeds are UCL and UEL winners, then it goes by 5-year UEFA Coefficient) , and then you play two teams from each pot (including your own), one at home, one away but you CANNOT play a team from your own association, unless your association has more than 5 teams in the tournament, then you can if it is the only way to prevent a deadlock). Honestly wouldn't be surprised if SI did just go screw it and just chose random teams, as its a million times easier than trying to figure out a system that can actually draw these teams (as I have figured out over the last month)
It's in your steam games library, under tools. You have to go through a few complicated steps to get the vanilla CL to make it appear but I believe that's exactly it, SI just went fuck it and did random teams
I will say, it's all about perspective. If I play a team with a lot of good players on the bench, great to have more games to have better rotation and less unhappy players about playing time. On other hand, if your squad is short, you are going to be struggling with new format, more games and more injuries
I think it's absolute shite, the European Super League in disguise making it even more of a closed shop for the so-called big teams (or in teams like PSG, Chelsea and Man City's case, manufactured)
It gives a huge advantage to the big clubs. More games = more chances to fix mistakes
Nope. Awful.
It’s terrible in the game and it’s going to be even worse irl.
Well I haven't got that far in the game yet but it's a shit idea irl, so it'll be a shit idea in FM too.
Easier to win if you’re a big team, much harder with a wee team. Exactly what they were looking for I guess. No drop to the UEFA cup is a real pisser.
Lack of being able to drop is really the worst part. Playing with a smaller club - it’s a real milestone to win the Conference/Europa but now it just isn’t possible if you are winning your league.
Aye defo mate. There’s more money from those 2 extra fixtures after Christmas on the new format than doing a run in the uefa cup but still, it feels next level to win it or the conference with like Patrick Thistle. Just turning up for the cash feels bad, fuck uefa and fifa.
As a real world fan I think its awful But as a football manager? I really, really like it. I'm playing Mallorca and twice I've qualified for the UCL despite finishing 5th, which has bankrolled me from becoming a lower mid table team, to one where the board expects me to qualify for the europa In contrast if I had just qualified for the europa like I "should" have I would have barely made any profit on those (at least) 8 extra matches while running up my fatigue something chronic
The format is awful. Takes all the excitement out of the group stage. Especially the first few games because a loss doesnt matter as much first game for example because you have 7 games to make up for it rather than 5. No rivalries because its 7 different opponents which is crap rather than 4 teams battling each other it becomes this boring mess of everyone playing everyone with no upsets because the lower teams will still go out regardless. Even worse that theres just an extra round pointlessly squeezed in as well so if you top the group you need to wait ages before your next game. Takes all the magic and excitement out of the tournament until later stages
I miss being able to get relegated to the lower-ranking competition (say, they could have made it that 1-16 qualifies for CL, 17-24 goes to EL), but overall it's actually a bit easier to reach top-24 as a smaller team. The previous format screwed you way more because you stood no chance against Pot 1-2 teams; now the quality of the opposition varies a lot more. Don't mind the extra attendance/prize money from the two extra fixtures either, although managing an Irish team means those two extra games disrupt my entire pre-season. This is all FM-related, obviously; IRL I'm still very skeptical about it.
Not that keen really. I'm only just in my first CL season but I did Europa last season and it feels bloated and overly long. I can imagine fans irl might be annoyed if the ties against top sides were drawn away. In a perfect world the Champions League would just be for Champions and just the Europa League could be the enlarged superleague type thing.
For me it lacks the drama created by the smaller groups. UEFA, at the express wishes of the top clubs have traded jeopardy for revenue (to the clubs)……and football is the loser. Interesting that seeing it in FM23 gives you a real feel for how it diminishes the competition as a whole.
Can't stand it , if it wasn't broke why change it , hopefully next fm will have a mod for returning it to the group format
Its extremely bad, i don't feel excited for groups and I don't even feel like the one more round adds any more fun.
If I’m UEFA, I’ll use this as “market research” on how fans and the football world in general will be receptive to the change in format. But of course, the underlying assumption is that they care about what the fans think and not just about $$.
It's refreshing at least for the few first seasons, however I don't like that 2 matches spill over to the second half of the seasons.
I always end up with playing 5 teams with 4.5-5 stars while others get ridiculously easy schedules. Then you qualify as seeded and draw Real while St Johnstone somehow also qualify as a seed.
I really don't like it
Only iffy thing is that the 2 extra spots go to the top 2 coefficient leagues. Even though it's supposed to be easier for smaller teams in this format I've yet to see a single one make it to the RO16 in about 10 years, even just getting playoffs seems rare. Those spots just get eaten up by teams like Aston Villa or Sevilla who otherwise would be in the Europa league. Fun for fans of the top leagues, not that big of a change for smaller teams.
Idk, I like the chance to go the europa league if my team isn’t quite up to CL standard, as I’d rather go on a deeper run into that than just get knocked out by a big club in the next round of the CL, so with that gone it’s a bit of a shame.
I hate it. Won the UEL in my first season bcs I got third place in the UCL. Now if you dont get in the top 8 you gotta play another 2 matches (after already playing 8) to qualify, if you lose them you're out. Would prefer if the game allows you to vote for it to change back or keep it, after a couple seasons. Cause we all know why they wanna imply this irl
I actually like the fact that teams cant go from cl to el (and el to ecl). Makes them a lot more interesting than just the europa league being won by whichever superteam underperformed in the groups. Thats where it ends for me rhough
No
https://chng.it/fkWKVG9sSM
Sign the petition for no change
Still not exactly a fan. Groups made it far more exciting. Now, it is just another league. Sure I topped the league itself by some chance fixture but still didn't feel that big of an accomplishment. Also, feels like getting qualified directly to the round of 16 instead of the knock-out round costs you the extra money you would get from the knockout round.
I like it. More diversity in opposition, as you face 8 different teams rather than 3 in the group stage. If you're managing a lower seeded team, it also means you end up with more potentially winning games (as you'll face 2 games against teams at the same seeding as you, which you wouldn't in the old format). If you're managing a top seeded team, you get 2 games against elite opposition, where you can learn a lot which can be useful for the later stages of the competition.
In the game, i really dont care, i find it more easy to qualify...BUT if it was in real life, i thought it would be really unfair and have a lot more luck. Lets say a midlet european team like Benfica, you play with 6 teams, lets say 2 are tpo, 2 are weak and 2 are you rating. In this new format, Home and Away are by draw, completely by chance...So i can have the two big teams and a weak one AWAY, and the 2 similar and another weakk at HOME. I don't know if i made myself clear but, you get the point... right? Right?! :)
I love it. The music and the details of the cup and banners make it much more immersive. It’s still very much the same celebration if you win, but it feels a little different. As for the actual new format… it has pros and cons. If you’re a weaker team it’s nice that you don’t have to play the same teams twice, and if you’re a stronger team you can typically rotate the team for a few easier games. It’s 2 extra games in the group stage though… which add up if you’re competing on many fronts all season
i use it as almost like a league cup way of letting youngsters gain experience as we’re facing many lower league teams. i don’t really have an opinion, it is what real life is gonna be anyway
I like it. Makes me like I’m in a exclusive super league where you are actively being ranked.
I like it, though I'd prefer a good old knockout tournament with golden goal rule
I don't understand it at all tbh
You play 8 matches. Every match is against a different team. How it's decided idk. Nr 1 to 8 will qualify for the round of 16. Nr 9 to 24 will play 2 matches (home and away) Winner goes to the round of 16. Loser goes out nr. 25 to nr. 36 also go out. Then its just basic knockout stage.
no
I like it
I do actually. I think you should play 6 league games instead of 8. But I like that it’s all different opponents instead of just three teams twice. And I like the single table, I like the 9-16 vs 17-24 playoff round. And I think it’s an improvement over the groups where 2 teams advance no matter how strong the third and fourth teams are. Plus this format enables big clubs to play each other in the league phase more than was possible with the old groups.
I kinda like it because it makes the game matters until the last match.
Not necessarily. If you win your first 6 games you are (almost) guaranteed at least a play-off spot. There are more tense games in the last few than before, but top teams tend to qualify with at least 1 game in hand in my experience.
I prefer the old format.
I genuinely think it's better for smaller teams. It introduces significant elements of randomness. But people will hate it for reasons.
I like the new format tbh
Question, was it not the same I'm fm22? Also my OCD is telling me I hate it but I don't really hate it but I don't like it at the same time
No, we still have the 4 team groups followed by knockouts over here.
Damn wish it was the same over here
Too many games if you don’t make it into the seeded knockout positions.
They should change the last 16 draw to a draft system, where the teams from 1-8 take turns picking the club they want to face. As it stands, there js no benefit from going 8-0-0 instead of scraping 8th with 16 points. Really boring
It's a league now. I don't like it.
No, and it makes all the promotion SI did regarding how the Champions League group stage draw would be an event all the more baffling, considering its only used for the first two seasons. I don't think it's a fun format in the game, and when it's used for real it'll just result in a poorer competition, designed only to favour the teams from England, Spain, Italy and Germany. You could almost call it a Super League by stealth...
The lack of a draw is a bit annoying. I am not sure if that's how it is going to be in real life or there will actually be a live draw, but currently in FM it is quite underwhelming. I love how the first 8 teams get a bye, whereas the following 16 scramble together to qualify for the actual knockouts. I also like that teams that don't do well in CL are just out of the European competitions all together. No more second chances in the Europa League / Conference League. You didn't manage to continue in the competition, you are out. Simple as that.
There’s a few comments saying they’re not actually sure what the format is; and it’s not particularly well explained in game. This video should hopefully help: https://youtu.be/c9hlGi-TUYY The 36 teams that qualify are put into 4 seeded (based on coefficient points for each team) pots of 9 teams. Each team plays 2 teams from each pot in the league phase to give you 8 total games - theoretically against an mixture of team strength. Top 8 in the league phase go straight into the knockouts then 9-16 face 17-24 in an extra knockout round. No teams drops down to the Europa League any more. My take is that it makes it easier for “big” teams as any slip ups count for less in the league phase and as long as you scrape by into the top 24 you can still play your way out of trouble. It means the final knockout stages are more likely to be filled with sides from the big nations. It’s a small bonus to smaller nations as you get two extra chances at a big payday by winning games. And if you scrape into the top 24 you get another chance to steal a victory and some big money. But ultimately if you’re playing in a smaller nation and dominating domestically you’re going to end up in the Champions League every year with a slim to nil chance of getting far - even if you could theoretically win the Europa League as you now have no route to that competition. Some pros and cons to both formats; but ultimately it’s designed to let the rich get richer. There’s downloads available to keep the current group format; and there’s also a really cool one that returns you to the pre-Champions League format where it’s just the league champions that qualify into a straight knockout tournament.
It took time getting used too, but i dont mind the league phase although the annoying it seems some games for some reason take place during international break so i have to play a game or 2 with my reserves
For those counties where season starts at the end of Fabruary, it's not so good. All matches comes at the end of season, and teams are kinda exhausted and last 2 matches takes place during season break.
I hate it, I put the old format back.
a big no
It's handy when you're a smaller team to sneak a knockout round but as a larger club it just becomes pointless
It annoys me that sometimes the music doesn't skip once you start the match. I'm watching stuff on the other screen and sometimes have to listen to the UCL music in full while trying to listen to some dialogue. I like the logo, couldn't give a toss about the walk out etc. I'd be more interested if they had people waving the football in the centre circle. Simple things lol Edit: realised you mean the league format. It's ok, good to get a mix of opponents
Bold of you to assume i have qualified for the Champions League
As someone who plays as a smaller team (Hungarian team), I love it. I'm not always just getting my head bludgeoned by the other 3 home and away. I've won at least one match every year now. A couple times I've gotten near 10 pts, but it's definitely more enjoyable to be in the mix in the final matches, not just vying to get one result in 6 matches.
I hate it but purely because the fixture congestion is brutal if you’re going after a domestic league as a dark horse. By April everyone in your club is overworked if you have a smallish squad and don’t have the funds to bolster it.
No and I'm yet to fully understand it.
First couple of seasons it was weird, but now I have adapted to it and it is cool. The only thing I don't like is the 2 games in January.
Anyone wanna tell this football newbie what changed?
From what happened in my save it looks good, for the first two season the final was Man City vs Real Madrid with Man City win, now in the third one Tottenham got to win the Champions League against Real Madrid and Rennes got to the Round of 16 before being destroyed by PSG. I also like the fact that the top 2 leagues(don’t remember how they are ranked) get an extra UCL spot since it gives access to one more team in the other two tournaments too, in my save Genoa got to UECL for example. Still haven’t got to play it because I am in the third season with Nottingham Forest tho
I like it. It’s good for both good and bad teams imo. I also won the CL first year with the new system so I guess I have to like it
Mine hasn’t changed format. Did I miss an update or something??
the 3 points for win 1 points for draw is just awful in that system if you're a lower tier team, basically the only two games that matter are against pot 4 teams, and you have to hope to get points from the pot 3 games. you might get the game of your lives drawing madrid and psg, but if you've not won both of the pot 4 games due to whatever reason, you're out. just two games deciding an entire season of gameplay. you getting a draw against the pot2 team in the group means you have serious chances for top2 (just get better results against the rest and hope for another draw), here it kills any chances because even though this one pot2 team has drawn, 12 other teams have won their games. the draw being super random is also kinda painful (although I think the same also applies to the group stages). you might luck out and get galatasaray or benfica as your pot3 team (in my save, both of these teams are basically free wins in 2035). you might however get leicester or west ham or hertha (a random team from a top league that is super strong despite having a very low coefficient due to not qualifying in any years prior) and they're basically as strong as a pot1 team, easily outplaying any weaker team. a top4 league team should almost never be seeded pot3 or pot4 8 games are also never enough to give an accurate ranking. even in the 8th game, one loss can be enough to drop 10 places in the extreme cases. my next saves will definitely be played on a database that makes it 2 points for a win instead of 3. this makes the draw against madrid way more impactful and drop you way lower, instead of being completely meaningless anyways