Remember the last Champions League overhaul? It gave us a cheat as a winner
September’s here, and with it comes a Champions League shake-up that promises to turn the football world upside down. But before we dive into the latest changes, let’s rewind to the last time UEFA decided to stir the pot.
We’re not talking about the 2021/22 season when UEFA introduced the Conference League. No, we’re going back 32 years to the birth of the Champions League as we know it.
Since 1955, Europe’s top football club has been crowned through a competition originally known as the European Cup. However, in the early 1990s, UEFA decided to make changes. The 1991/92 season introduced group stages, and by 1992/93, the tournament was rebranded as the Champions League, implying to the fact that only champions were allowed to participate in the competition. This, of course, has now been changed.
As for the group stage back then, it existed but was a very exclusive affair — think “elite eight,” as they say in the NCAA. To get to this stage, teams had to survive a good old knockout round, which meant some big clubs didn’t even make it to the group stage.
For example, reigning German champions Stuttgart were knocked out by England’s Leeds United and Even FC Barcelona, the Spanish champions, were shown the door by CSKA Moscow, losing 4-3 on aggregate.
When the final eight were finally decided, teams were split into two groups: Group A with CSKA, Club Brugge (Belgium), Glasgow Rangers (Scotland), and Marseille (France); and Group B with AC Milan (Italy), IFK Göteborg (Sweden), FC Porto (Portugal), and PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands).
Each team played home and away, but only the group winner advanced to the next round — which was already the final. Marseille emerged as the Group A victor, and AC Milan topped Group B.
The final showdown between Marseille and Milan took place in Munich, where this year’s final will also be held. Marseille clinched the title with a 1-0 win, courtesy of a header from defender Basile Boli in the 43rd minute.
Thus, Marseille became the first — and still the only — French club to be crowned Europe’s champions. But the glory was short-lived. Just a week later, it was revealed that Marseille’s president Bernard Tapie and CEO Jean-Pierre Bernès had bribed oppositions.
Here’s the scoop: A year before, Marseille had suffered a heartbreaking loss in the European Cup final, losing on penalties to Red Star Belgrade. Tapie and Bernès were determined not to let history repeat itself, so they cooked up a scheme.
Six days before the Champions League final, Marseille faced Valenciennes in the domestic league. To ensure their players were fresh for the big match, they offered Valenciennes players money to take it easy. Jean-Jacques Eydelie, a Marseille player, was tasked with organizing and finalizing the deal.
In his 2006 book, Eydelie recalled Tapie saying, “It is imperative that you get in touch with your former Nantes team-mates at Valenciennes. We don’t want them acting like idiots and breaking us before the final with Milan..”
So, three Valenciennes players were approached: captain Christophe Robert, Jacques Glassmann, and Jorge Burruchaga. While Glassmann rejected the offer, the other two accepted and with Robert being the captain, convincing his teammates wasn’t especially hard.
But guilt got the best of Robert, and two weeks later, he confessed everything to the authorities. This led to a massive police investigation, with Marseille’s club offices raided, and 12 players and numerous officials questioned.
While most denied involvement, Eydelie came clean, leading to Marseille being stripped of their 1992/93 domestic league title by the French Football Federation. UEFA also banned them from all European competitions the following season, but they did allow Marseille to keep their 1993 Champions League title.
The scandal didn’t fully conclude until 1995, when it went to court in Valenciennes. Bernès and Eydelie pleaded guilty to corruption and pointed the finger at Tapie as the mastermind. Bernès even revealed they had used bribes five or six times that season.
As a result Tapie was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 20,000 francs. Bernès, Eydelie, and the Valenciennes players who took the bribe also served shorter sentences. The only one to come out with his head held high was Glassmann, who was awarded FIFA’s Fair Play Award.
Fast forward to today, let’s talk about the new Champions League season with 36 teams (up from 32) and the chess-inspired Swiss system that’s about to be introduced.
Each team will face eight opponents determined by a draw over the next five months — yes, the group stage now runs until January.
The top eight teams will automatically advance to the Round of 16. Teams that finish 9th to 24th will compete in a play-off round, with the winners joining the top eight in the knockout stage. The season will culminate in the final on May 31 in Munich.
