Football officials in Europe have focused on the rivalry between Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal in planning for the new-look Champions League next season.

The tournament format has 36 clubs, with the top eight clubs going straight to the round of 16. The teams ranked 9th to 24th will play off and, along with the 8 winners, will also enter the knockout round.

In planning meetings over the past few years, UEFA chiefs have talked a lot about the tennis final between Nadal and Federer. They discussed seeding until the end of the match, of course Novak Djokovic was also there.

Thus, the teams that finish first and second in the new format after 8 matches will be seeded and will not have to compete against each other until the final matches, especially the finals.

And that means that for the round of 16, there will be a structured route to the final, similar to tennis tournaments, to map out potential clashes. Therefore, there will be no quarter-final or semi-final draw because the route has already been planned.

And it’s good that no team playing in the Champions League next season will be dropped into the Europa League, because the “silly” bonus for these failing clubs has been eliminated.

Meanwhile, UEFA Deputy Secretary General Giorgio Marchetti has revealed that a completely manual draw is no longer feasible in the new format as it can take four hours to complete and requires 900 balls, but instead the League The group will consider using tools to replace humans to do that job.

UEFA affirms that there will be no fraud when everything will be controlled transparently, but clearly this agency’s justification is completely unconvincing.