C1: place in the 8th, under the threat of the Covid and the Superligue - France 24

Paris (AFP)

Shadow areas on the track to the stars: the Barcelona-Paris SG gala poster, Tuesday at the opening of the round of 16 first leg, highlights a Champions League still threatened by the Covid-19 pandemic and clouded by a project of "Superleague" reserved for European leaders.

The C1 anthem will return to the ears of the sixteen teams still in the running, Tuesday and Wednesday then the following week, but supporters will only be able to listen to it through the speakers of their televisions, in these days of huis sanitary enclosure.

In the absence of atmosphere, there will surely be a spectacle with in particular the reunion between FC Barcelona and Paris SG, four years after the improbable "remountada" (0-4, 6-1) inflicted in 2017 by the Catalan club to the now French vice-champions of Europe.

Lionel Messi and his six Golden Balls are expected on the Camp Nou lawn, but not Neymar or Angel Di Maria, the two PSG dribblers recently mown by injuries.

The Parisians will nevertheless bet on the speed and the dazzlingness of Kylian Mbappé.

Cristiano Ronaldo returns to his native Portugal on Wednesday to challenge the FC Porto "Dragons" with Juventus Turin.

At the same time, the Sevilla FC of promising Jules Koundé (22) receives Borussia Dortmund with a high morale, inflated by a series of nine consecutive victories in all competitions.

- Budapest in plan B -

Until then, UEFA is crossing its fingers so that the wave of Covid-19, made even more threatening by the British, Brazilian or South African variants, does not spoil the hoped-for party.

The governing body of football in Europe has already been forced to adapt the conditions for restarting this edition of the Champions League to cope with the drastic movement restrictions put in place in Germany, a country which has placed four of its representatives in Round of 16.

Thus, Budapest has turned into a home for the first leg played by RB Leipzig on Wednesday against Liverpool, as well as the match between Mönchengladbach and Manchester City.

The enticing poster between Atlético Madrid and Chelsea, in Spain, has been relocated to Bucharest.

And questions may arise in the future for the trip of Bayern Munich, defending European champion, on the ground of Lazio Rome, or Real Madrid of Zinédine Zidane on the grounds of Atalanta Bergamo. in Italy.

- Superleague, super-bluff?

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In the medium term, and well beyond the health crisis, it is the risk of a secession of the big clubs to form their own private league that worries UEFA.

Scarecrow of European football for twenty years, the specter of a "Superleague" resurfaced in the fall through Josep Maria Bartomeu, boss resigned from Barça who confirmed underground discussions.

According to several media, this lucrative project inspired by North American sports leagues (NBA, NFL, NHL ...) could bring together around twenty teams from the main championships, with play-offs at the end of the season, and would include Real, Barça and Manchester United among its promoters.

The endorsement of the legalistic German clubs seems more doubtful, as does that of PSG or Juve.

If nothing can rule out a pure bluff, UEFA and Fifa took the lead at the end of January by threatening to ban from their own competitions any player participating in a Superleague.

At the same time, the European confederation accelerated work on the new formula for the C1 from 2024: from corroborating sources, the passage from 32 to 36 teams and the disappearance of the current group stage in favor of a mini-championship pitting each team against ten different opponents, before attacking the round of 16, now seem to be in place.

Borrowed from the "Swiss system" of chess tournaments, this format would swell the cake of TV rights and would create new clashes between big clubs from the fall - stealing its main asset from the Superleague - but at the cost of further saturation. crazier of the players program.

"The real challenge for the future will be the calendar of international matches, the balance to be found between the football of the selections and the football of the clubs", thus warned the boss of Fifa Gianni Infantino last week with AFP .

Schedule for the knockout stages of the Champions League (in GMT hours):

Tuesday, February 16th:

(8:00 p.m.) FC Barcelona (ESP) - Paris Saint-Germain (FRA)

RB Leipzig (GER) - Liverpool (ENG) to Budapest

Wednesday February 17:

(8 p.m.) FC Porto (POR) - Juventus Turin (ITA)

Sevilla FC (ESP) - Borussia Dortmund (GER)

Tuesday, February 23rd:

(8 p.m.) Lazio Rome (ITA) - Bayern Munich (GER)

Atlético Madrid (ESP) - Chelsea (ENG) in Bucharest

Wednesday, February 24:

(8 p.m.) Mönchengladbach (GER) - Manchester City (ANG) to Budapest

Atalanta Bergamo (ITA) - Real Madrid (ESP)

© 2021 AFP