HawkMan

Anyone doubting the new CL format has had to re-evaluate, it's been a sensational success. Plenty to play for on the final match day next week. The amazing Benfica v Barcelona game. The inaugural Champions League league phase is set for an exciting final day with 25 of the 36 teams still awaiting their fate. All 18 games will be played at the same time - at 20:00 GMT on Wednesday, 29 January, with 16 matches having something on the line. Manchester City are in major danger of elimination after Wednesday's collapse at Paris St-Germain, while Liverpool are through, Arsenal are almost there and Aston Villa and Celtic - who meet - are somewhere in between. The 'as it stands' table will be constantly updating with teams' hopes potentially relying on other results. It marks the first season of the new format, compared with the old four-team groups with two going through - where sometimes there was nothing to play for by the end. "It's been brilliant, instead of the borefest we've had for years on the last matchday," wrote ex-Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher on social media. "Next week will be sensational." How many teams qualify for the knockout phase? First, here's a reminder of what the 36 league-phase teams are aiming for. Those finishing in the top eight automatically progress to the last 16, where they will be seeded. They will await the winners of eight two-legged knockout play-off ties featuring the clubs ranked from ninth to 24th. Those finishing between ninth and 16th will be seeded and face a team placed 17th to 24th, with the advantage of playing the second leg at home. The clubs 25th or lower are eliminated and do not gain entry to the Europa League. The play-off ties take place mid-February, with the last-16 matches in the first two weeks of March. Which teams have qualified - and who is out? Top-eight guaranteed: Liverpool, Barcelona Top-24 guaranteed (at least): Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, AC Milan, Atalanta, Bayer Leverkusen, Aston Villa, Monaco, Feyenoord, Lille, Brest, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Juventus, Celtic Uncertain of progression: PSV, Club Brugge, Benfica, PSG, Sporting, Stuttgart, Manchester City, Dinamo Zagreb, Shakhtar Donetsk Eliminated: Bologna, Sparta Prague, Leipzig, Girona, Red Star Belgrade, Sturm Graz, Salzburg, Slovan Bratislava, Young Boys What do the British teams need to go through? Manchester City have a very simple permutation. If they beat Club Brugge at home they will go into the play-off round. If they fail to win they will be eliminated. They cannot reach the last 16 automatically. Aston Villa are guaranteed at least a play-off place. A win at home to Celtic would give them a good chance of finishing in the top eight, though they would need one of five teams above them to slip up. But also four teams are only below Villa on goal difference so a big win for one of those sides could see them overtake Villa too. Celtic are only one point behind Villa so could conceivably finish in the top eight, but they would need to win and for a lot of things to happen above them. Arsenal - away at Girona - are all but in the last 16 as they sit three points clear of the play-offs with a much better goal difference than any team on 13 points. Liverpool are one of two teams, along with Barcelona, who know they are in the last 16 already, and will be guaranteed a top-two place. Bayern Munich and Real Madrid are among the giants in the positions between ninth and 24th hoping for things to go their way to end up in the top eight. Does it matter where you finish in top eight ? Definitely. Where a team finishes in the league table determines which opponents they face and when they can face them in the knockout stage. Take Liverpool for example. The Reds are now guaranteed a top-two finish, which gives them a seeded route through to the last 16. That means the Reds will face a team who finished 15th, 16th, 17th or 18th in the last 16. The identity of the team will not be known until after the play-offs, but the pre-determined draw means it will be the winner of the ties involving teams that finish in those four places. Liverpool cannot face the team who finishes second in the league phase - or whoever finishes top if they are overtaken on the final matchday - until the final. By contrast, a team that finishes seventh or eighth could face a side that had finished just below them in the league phase - in ninth or 10th. For more on who plays who in the play-offs, keep reading... What is the difference between finishing ninth and 24th? Teams that finish between ninth and 16th will be seeded in the knockout phase play-off draw. It means they will face a team that finishes between 17th to 24th. Who the seeded teams will face will be determined by a draw but clubs will only have two possible opponents. For example, the teams that finish 11th and 12th are paired together and will play a team that finishes 21st or 22nd. Another bracket will pair the teams that finish ninth and 10th in the table, playing either the team that was 23rd or 24th. The two pairs of fixtures will be drawn into opposite halves of the overall draw and the seeded teams will play the second leg of the play-off at home as a reward for finishing higher than their opponent in the league phase. Unlike in previous years, teams eliminated from the Champions League - either in the group phase or via losing a play-off - will not drop into the Europa League. The draw for the play-off round is on 31 January at 11:00 GMT. Has this format worked? One of Uefa's reasons for changing to this format was so "every game counts". It said the format "will ensure that any result has the potential to dramatically change a team's position, right up to and including the very last matchday". And so it has panned out with only two dead rubbers (Sturm Graz v Leipzig and Young Boys v Red Star Belgrade) and 16 games with something on the line. There are several games where both clubs are battling for the same goal, like Manchester City v Club Brugge, Stuttgart v PSG, Brest v Real Madrid and Inter Milan v Monaco. It could lead to enjoyable mayhem for fans with some teams potentially being affected by more than 10 other games. Aston Villa, for example, could overtake six teams or be overtaken by 15 teams (albeit not all 15) - including opponents Celtic. Another reason Uefa gave for the new format was to ensure more matches between the top teams in the initial stages of the tournament. This year has seen Real Madrid face Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool in repeats of three recent finals, and Barcelona play Bayern Munich, while Paris St-Germain have faced Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich and Manchester City. What is financial impact of finishing where? Failing to qualify for the next round means taking a financial hit. Every club in the league phase gets 18.62m euros for participating, with performance bonuses of 2.1m euros per win and 700,000 euros per draw. Each position in the table is worth 275,000 euros, too. So the team that finishes 36th earns that much, 35th claims 550,000 euros through to 9.9m euros for the table-toppers. Teams finishing first to eighth also earn a 2m euros bonus, with teams finishing ninth to 16th getting 1m euros. The prize money for reaching each knockout round is shown below. Uefa has also introduced a "value pillar" that splits the broadcast revenue. This again increases depending on your finishing position in the league phase. That is before matchday revenue and other factors are taken into account. In other words, it is fairly costly to be eliminated early. Champions League knockouts prize money Stage Prize money (per club) Knockout round play-offs £840,000 Last-16 £9.3m Quarter-finals £10.6m Semi-finals £12.7m Runner-up £15.6m Winner £21.1m Source: Uefa

Nope

Footballers have nothing to learn watching League players. They absolutely I'm sure marvelled at the skills, but cannot replicate them in Football. Also I'm sure impressed at the dedication of League players for so scant a reward. But footballers don't reach the top tier without their own dedication and fitness hard work and abstinence. Also only the very top are on 300K. Lesser Premier ones on about 50K to Championship ones at 20K per week ,down to 6 or 7 hundred in League 2, still nice though. I agree it's more publicity for Wigan than for Manchester United.

Just as well Amorim wasn't there, he may have tried to sign a few Warriors to replace the shower of ###### currently masquerading as United players.

We mustn't confuse wealth with popularity. Baseball is wealthy but not really massively global, and NFL certainly isn't a global sport. NFL sort of transcends sport because of Hollywood and US TV where it appears regularly and gives the impression of being OMG Humongous! Can I believe tennis has more fans than Baseball, or table tennis more as well. Absolutely, think of China, 1.4 billion people in 2023, and table Tennis is massive there. The figures presented are all about Internet sports sites traffic, so presumably not subjective. But yes it does depend on what sites you take figures from, and I agree with the article author about Field Hockey played a lot but not a big spectator sport, though in India and Pakistan it's huge. Basketball is a minor sport in England but more popular in Europe , as someone said previously, a wide fan base but perhaps not that deep. As per the subject of this thread, darts is nowhere as is RL or Union.

Cricket is a great game Eddie, so many formats and is very popular globally, second behind football. On the same website, there are top sports lists for each country, based on the estimated number of fans using a very interesting method to measure popularity. The lists are based on the results of website visitor traffic analysis (using the Alexa traffic rank) of over 300 sports websites, which reflect which sports the internet users in the particular country are most interested in. Regional popularity gives an insight into where the fan base is located around the world. Field hockey is widely played, though I'm not sure it should be ranked so high. Response from Google AI about RL How many fans does the rugby league have? “The overall numbers have also increased significantly compared to a year ago with over 7.2 million Australians now supporting an NRL club, up a large 757,000 (+11.7%) on a year ago, and up almost as many, 6.8 million, now watching the NRL on TV – up 674,000 (+11%) on a year ago.26 Sept 2023 rank Sport Estimated Fans Regional Popularity 1. Soccer / Association Football 3.5 Billion Europe, Africa, Asia, America. 2. Cricket 2.5 Billion Asia, Australia, UK. 3. Field Hockey 2 Billion Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia. 4. Tennis 1 Billion Europe, Asia, America. 5. Volleyball 900 Million Europe, Australia, Asia, America. 6. Table Tennis 850 Million Europe, Africa, Asia, America. 7. Baseball 500 Million America, Japan. 8. Golf 450 Million Europe, Asia, America, Canada. =9 Basketball 400 Million America. =9 American Football 400 Million Europe, Africa, Asia, America, Australia. Motor Sport is not included, so asking Google AI, Formula 1 (F1) has over 750 million fans worldwide. This makes it the most popular annual sporting series. How has the fan base grown? Women Women make up 41% of the F1 fan base, and the 16–24 age group is the fastest growing. Middle East Saudi Arabia is the biggest growth market, with 11% more fans than in 2023. Digital F1 is outperforming other major sports in the digital arena. Netflix The 2019 release of Formula 1: Drive to Survive helped F1 gain popularity in the U.S. Social media People are more likely to learn about F1 through social media than through Drive to Survive. How many people watch F1 on TV? In 2022, 1.5 billion fans watched F1 on TV. In 2021, 445 million people watched F1 on TV. How many people attend F1 races? In 2023, 5.69 million people attended F1 races.

What we need is a TRL Forum members trading card set. " I'll swap my " Graveyard Johnny " for a " Harry Stottle "

Ah...World Of Sport....and Benny Hill an unbeatable combo.

Quite right too, the only contradiction is to say darts is second in the Sky ratings and then say SL is ahead of it, but isn't numero uno. I'll withdraw from this debate too as I with some trepidation enter Tamworth's stadium for my team's possible humiliation in the FA cup.

Exactly, either darts isn't second despite what Sky say, or it is and SL is behind it. And @gingerjon, its not a case of putting RL down but recognising where it's at, only then armed with a realistic view and determination can things be improved. Btw, 25m a year is more than 21.5m not level, and the trajectory is upwards for darts, helped no doubt by other broadcasters showing an interest, but Sky could have said no to Hearn ,but chose to pay double the previous deal to keep it. They might pay more to SL to keep it if others show an interest, we'll see.

Irrespective of how many times he's mentioned it , or why, is he right? I suspect he's saying something uncomfortably close to the truth.

Reading the article that Gav Wilson linked, it says Darts is second only to football for viewing figures on Sky. I've read that elsewhere lately in a number of publications. Presumably they're not lying , so the larger SL can't be sandwiched in between darts and football, otherwise darts would be third not second, so SL must be joint first with football in the viewing figures, QED. Fantastic.

I wonder how many kids are watching Liverpool v Accrington Stanley on ITV? Accrington Stanley? Who are they?!

And as we have learned on this thread RL is bigger than Darts, more popular by every metric apparently, we can expect a similar doubling of our TV deal : £43 million a year, very nice.

I'd have thought the reason was fairly obvious. From Sky who rely on subscribers and advertising, there's not enough viewers to make a dedicated channel worthwhile, their valuation of RL is apparent in their TV deal offering. The BBC would say as per their obligations as a license fee broadcaster they give national coverage throughout the season to a non nationwide sport , so they cover themselves adequately.