New Champions League shakes up football; Chilean Leandro Shara claims that the system is his and explains the advantages: ‘With my format everyone always goes out to win’

How did you react to the decision on the new format for the Champions League?

I was aiming for this to happen a long time ago. I think the change is wonderful. However, even though I am a Fifa advisor and have been working with UEFA for 10 years, they adopt it and announce it as a Swiss format and launch it with some imperfections. That is not fair because I have worked with FIFA under contract and they recognise my intellectual property, whereas UEFA does not recognise my property, they do not mention that I am the creator of the format.

What imperfections are you referring to?

They initially announced the Swiss format, which consists of grouping winners with winners and losers with losers when the first match is played, and you don’t know your second opponent, and when you’ve already played your second match, you have to wait to see which opponent you’ll be assigned to. The Champions League, with my format, is not a Swiss format, because it is based on zones or pots, where there are teams in zone A, B, C and D, depending on the ranking.

Why did UEFA decide to change the format?

By applying my format, with four additional teams and two additional dates, the number of matches increases by more than 50 percent. If you were selling apples at the market and you have a stand that holds 100 apples and you see the possibility of moving to another stand with 152 apples and they are all sold… you take it and move, knowing that that stand belongs to someone else. Nobody has ever done a 36-team format for football, except when my format has been used. FIFA wanted to take 36 teams to the World Cup in Germany – it ended up being 32 – and I developed that format and protected it intellectually.

Why doesn’t UEFA recognise its format?

They say that they are the creators of my format, that they have invested many hours; if they are creators of formats, why didn’t they do it before, why do they call it Swiss format if it isn’t? They don’t know my format, they just went to my apple stand.

Is the format the same as yours?

It’s the same mathematical algorithm that I created. The first phase of the Champions League doesn’t have a direct elimination, there are no groups, it’s not a League as they are calling it, because they don’t play everyone against everyone in two rounds. The format has zones, these pots are ranked, each team plays against rivals from all the pots, two matches in this case… It’s a copy of my format, it doesn’t even have similarities, it’s a copy.

What is the biggest advantage of this format?

It’s all good. The last date will be 25 games, all at the same time, and the level of uncertainty is so high that all teams will have to go out to win. When a team plays under my format, it has to be aware of all the results because all of them will interfere with its position in the standings. Two, the biggest advantage is flexibility, because it is impossible to do a group tournament with 36 teams. Third, no one has ever held a tournament with 8 rounds in the first round, and my format allows that. In addition, the number of matches in the first round has increased by more than 50%. In the last Champions Leagues, it can be seen that in the last group matches, many matches were no longer valid, as teams had already been eliminated or qualified. Here, the level of competitiveness rises to 96 percent compared to the group format, which is around 50 percent. Another advantage: since A teams face each other, with the draw that was made, 4 of the last 5 finals in the first phase are repeated. It is like Argentina vs. France in the first phase of the World Cup.

And what disadvantages does it have as the draw was held?

The corruption of the sports world, which allows this format to be adopted without the permission of its creator.

Is the format a response to the Super League (a competition project different from the Champions League promoted by the president of Real Madrid)?

When the Super League launched in 2021 that they were going to move forward with this issue, that same afternoon UEFA announced the innovative Swiss format and said they were going to have 36 teams in 10 dates, which is impossible, because dividing 36 by 10 gives you 3.6, you can’t have 3.6 teams in a pot… They announced it wrong.

It has been said that this format makes the competition more transparent, why?

In World Cups or Copa America, when groups are defined, the last two games are played at the same time, because two teams can agree to leave another one out, because in a group of 4 a team plays 3 games out of 6, interfering in 50% of the games. In a format where the 36 teams go to a single table you don’t reach 5% of the number of games, therefore, regardless of the position, you don’t need to play at the same time. There are scientific studies that show that my format prevents manipulation of results. Thanks to my format, in 100 games a maximum of 3 or 4 could be manipulated, that is, 2 out of 50. The level of possibility of making an arrangement is minimal. The FBI is very interested in the format being applied to prevent dishonest betting. With my format the level of speculation drops to almost zero because everyone always wins.

Are the fans ready for this system?

Whenever you are going to do something different you have to have a good communication plan. UEFA’s plan has been weak because they did not seek advice from its creator.

Is that the reason for the certain confusion it generates?

It has to be explained clearly. In a simple way, because the format is simple: no matter where your team is placed, you will play against one of the teams from pot A, B, C and D, 4 home games and 4 away games. At the end of the 8 rounds, the top 8 go to the third round, the 9th to the 24th go to the play-offs and the bottom 8 are eliminated. All the teams compete against each other in a single standings. That’s it.

Now that the draw is over, what did you like most?

My format is already in the Champions League… Speaking of football, let’s have A teams face each other in the first round, to see 8 matches between A teams.

Carlo Ancelotti has already warned that the number of matches will increase and this could affect the calendar. What do you think?

Two more dates have been added, the calendar is not affected as much. Now, I could have made my format with the same number of dates and have more matches, more teams, more football, more competitiveness. But they didn’t consult me.

What is your requirement?

I ask UEFA for two things: that they pay me a fair price and that they report through all official means that I am the creator of the format.

PAUL ROMERO

Sports Editor

@PabloRomeroET

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