The New Year is already here and brought a lot of changes in many fields, including of course football. With major competitions like the UEFA Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup adopting updated formats teams, players, fans, and amongst them the bettors, have already started preparing for all the new fixtures. Changes like the extended league phases and the expanded tournaments are promising to change the traditional football calendar and offer new challenges and exciting online betting opportunities
Champions League
The UEFA Champions League already presented the new format which started from the 2024/25 season. The traditional group stage is now replaced by a single league phase including 36 teams. Each team will play eight matches against different opponents, 4 at home and 4 away, with the top-8 teams automatically qualifying for the Round of 16, while the teams ranked 9th to 24th will enter a two-legged playoff to secure their spots in the knockout stage, something that creates more options for online betting.
Club World Cup
Changes will not apply only in Champions League, as FIFA has announced an expanded Club World Cup, which will take place every four years starting in 2025. The tournament will include 32 teams from around the world, competing in a format similar to the FIFA World Cup. This expansion targets to increase the global interest and provide a more competitive environment for club teams around the world and creating a new football online betting market.
European Super League (ESL)
The project of the European Super League has been a topic of intense debate couple of years now. The proposal by 12 major European clubs, the ESL faced significant issues from fans, governments and other club owners, ending to the withdrawal of nine clubs. Although, clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Juventus are still supporting the ESL project and the news are expected with a great interesting in 2025.
