Will the new-look Champions League be more exciting?
The Athletic FC Podcast
The Athletic
4.0 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 August 2024
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ahead of the Champions League returning it’s goodbye to the group stage and that’s not the only change - you’ll probably notice they’ve dabbled with the music as well!
To delve into the changes to the format Ayo Akinwolere is joined by football news reporter Matt Slater and lead writer for The Athletic FC newsletter Phil Hay.
The panel get into the the new league structure, explain why it gets called "The Swiss Model" and how it will work in practice.
Host: Ayo Akinwolere
With: Matt Slater and Phil Hay
Executive Producer: Abi Paterson
Producer: Guy Clarke
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This episode of the Athletic FC is brought to you by TNT Sports, your destination for football's not normal moments. |
| 0:06.3 | Whether it's the Premier League or your way for Champions League or the men's and women's FA Cup, |
| 0:10.3 | every match day brings drama, excitement and brilliance that simply cannot be explained. |
| 0:15.0 | What do we mean? |
| 0:16.0 | It's Cole Palmer with ice in his veins scoring a last-minute winner. |
| 0:19.3 | It's a trademark lung-busting box-to-box |
| 0:21.4 | run by Declam Rice, Islamin Yamal embarrassing defenders almost twice his age. TNC Sports brings |
| 0:27.3 | you football in its most unpredictable jaw-dropping glory with the very best domestic and |
| 0:31.6 | European club competitions live and all in one place. So forget normal because normal's boring. |
| 0:37.4 | From the outrageous to the unexpected with added bits of chaos, craziness and fun that only football can deliver, it's got to be TNT Sports. With the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Europa League, Conference League, Emirates, FA Cup, and Adobe Women's FA Cup all in one place. TNT Sports, not normal. |
| 0:54.8 | Stream TNT Sports on Discovery Plus or watch TNT Sports channels on E, Sky and Virgin Media. |
| 1:00.2 | Subscription required. It's over 18s only and T's T's and T's apply. |
| 1:08.0 | The Athletic FC Podcast Network. |
| 1:14.0 | Welcome to the Fic FC podcast with me, Iyo Akim Wolleri. |
| 1:17.2 | Today, it's all about the Champions League. |
| 1:20.7 | In Europe, it's goodbye to the group stage, |
| 1:23.1 | and that's not the only thing they've changed. |
| 1:24.8 | You'll probably be noticed they've dabbled with the music as well. |
| 1:28.3 | To talk us through it, we've got a football news reporter Matt Slater, |
| 1:31.3 | and Phil Hay is back with us as well. |
| 1:33.4 | So why is the Champions League changing? |
| 1:41.2 | Good to have you with this, gents. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Athletic, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Athletic and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.