UEFA have held discussions regarding the reformatting of the Champions League, with one proposal seeing the competition expanded to include 36 teams - six of which could be from the Premier League.
The suggestion was made during Thursday's February shareholders' call, with any amendments to the current format looking to be brought into effect from 2024.
Should Europe's premier competition be expanded to include 36 teams, the traditional four-team groups would be replaced with one singular group. Each side would play ten group games each - with fixtures based on seeding - before being placed from first to 36th in the final league table.
The top eight teams would emerge automatically to the round of 16, while the final eight places in the first knockout round would be decided via a play-off system between the teams that finish from ninth to 24th.
No final decision has yet been made on the proposal, however, should the 36-team competition be given the green light, as many as six Premier League teams could take part in the Champions League.
The top four sides in the Premier League would qualify for the competition as normal, while another two places could be earned by sides finishing outside of the top four.
These positions would be decided using the UEFA co-efficient - a metric currently used to determine seedings which takes into account historical performances in the competition - though no side finishing lower than seventh in the league would be considered.
For example, should Liverpool and Chelsea finish fifth and sixth in the Premier League respectively, the league's top four teams would automatically qualify. But the heavyweight duo could also make the cut by virtue of their UEFA co-efficient (ie. if they've performed well enough in recent editions of the competitions).
England's entries into European tournaments would be capped at seven, meaning if the aforementioned scenario did come to pass, only one side from the Premier League would be allowed entry into the Europa League.
That make any sense whatsoever? Nah, didn't think so. Oh well, we tried.
Source : 90min