UEFA confirm controversial new Champions League rule two clubs will benefit from

UEFA have confirmed a new rule for the Champions League knockout after the first season of the new format.

A controversial rule change from UEFA will only benefit two Champions League teams in the new season. The governing body has confirmed new seeding rules for the knockout stages of the tournament, with home advantage in second legs now determined by merit rather than random draws.

Teams ranked first to fourth in the league phase will be guaranteed to play at home in both the round of 16 and quarter-finals, if they advance. But there is some controversy to their new rule – if those teams are knocked out in the round of 16, the team that defeats them will inherit their second-leg home advantage.

Only teams finishing first or second are guaranteed home advantage in the semi-final second leg, if they reach that stage. Last year, Liverpool hosted eventual champions Paris Saint-Germain in their second leg due to league phase position, but were eliminated on penalties.

Had they progressed, they would have faced an away second leg against Aston Villa in the quarter-finals, but a home second leg against Arsenal in the semi-finals.

Under the revised rules, teams finishing in the top two would have hosted all second legs in the knockout stages, with PSG inheriting this privilege after eliminating Liverpool.

This implies that if these regulations had been implemented last season, PSG would have hosted the semi-final second leg, despite their 15th-place finish in the league phase, due to their victory over Liverpool. Meanwhile, Arsenal, who finished third, would not have gained any advantage in the final four based on their league position.

As reported by ESPN, these new rules create an imbalance, disadvantaging teams that finish third and fourth as they will never host a semi-final second leg.

Similarly, teams finishing fifth and sixth, while skipping the knockout phase playoffs and securing a home advantage for the second leg of the round of 16, would then play away in the second legs of both the quarter and semi-finals.

Only teams finishing in the following positions can host a semi-final second leg, due to the structure of the knockout phase draw: first, second, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, twenty-third, twenty-fourth.

Therefore, there is now a stronger incentive to finish in the top two, as Liverpool and Barcelona did last season.

However, if a team does not secure a top-two finish, determining whether their league position offers any significant advantage in the knockout stages becomes somewhat more complex.