What's The Need For The UEFA Champions League Playoff Knockout Phase Draw?

Today was the first edition of the UEFA Champions League Knockout Playoff Phase Draw - definitely a mouthful - but also a bit of a pointless part of the new Champions League format.

The new Champions League format definitely has its strengths, with the potential for more drama on matchday 8, more variety in the league phase and no relegation to the Europa League, but the wasted time on the 'UEFA Champions League Playoff Knockout Phase Draw' is certainly a downside.

Image: Getty

The drama on matchday 8 was well advertised but the hype wasn't really lived up to and I feel part of that was not knowing on that day who was facing who in the next round.

We knew on the day that teams would have two potential options in the next round, but imagine the drama if on the day, when teams were swapping places all the time, we knew in real time the matchups they were swapping to?

Image: Getty

I think that it would add to the much advertised and marketed drama of matchday 8, rather than have it happen, and have the teams wait a couple days to have a dull blown UEFA draw ceremony to find out which of two teams they were facing.

The format should either be seed 8 v 24, seed 9 v 23 etc. or all random, it feels a bit of a mistake on UEFA's part to have it known which two teams clubs would face and have a, lets face it, boring, draw ceremony, when we could have even more added drama.