Hard for me to get excited about the new Champions League format, reveals Thomas Tuchel

Thomas Tuchel is severely distressed by the additional fixture pile up on top of an already jam-packed calendar year which sees them play a total of 58 or 59-game for this season. With the addition of four extra matches to the group phase of the Champions League from the 2024/25 season onwards, it would create additional pressure and increase chances of injury for key squad players.

Tuchel believes that such reforms push players beyond their physical limits when the revamped UEFA's revamped Nations League and FIFA's new Club World Cup tournament proposals are taken into consideration. Although in the wake of the Super League fallout, the news of the revamped Champions League format has gone under the radar, Tuchel believes that such reforms don’t take player wellbeing into consideration. 

"I am not sure if I like it because I can only see many more games in the schedule that we have. It is very hard for me to get excited about it. With these discussions about the Super League, we forget that we now have a new format in the Champions League. Did they ask any coach about it? I don’t think so. Did they ask any players about it? I don’t think so,” Tuchel said, reported Goal.

“We have a Nations League, a new championship for the clubs, so much more stuff and so many more games, European Championships in the summer, it is just more and more games. Who should play these games? At the same time, we have only three substitutes per game here in the Premier League. No, I am not happy about this format.”