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UEFA Against the Champions? An Evaluation of the Recent Reform of the Champions League Qualification

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  • László Csató

Abstract

The paper evaluates the impact of the only reform in the Champions Path of UEFA Champions League qualifying system, effective from the 2018/19 season. In contrast to previous studies, our methodology considers five seasons instead of only one to filter out any possible season-specific attributes. The chances of some national champions decrease much stronger than suggested by the reduction in the number of available slots. Since the negative effects depend to a large extent on the arbitrary cutoffs in the access list, we propose to introduce some randomness into the determination of entry stages.

Suggested Citation

  • László Csató, 2022. "UEFA Against the Champions? An Evaluation of the Recent Reform of the Champions League Qualification," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 23(8), pages 991-1016, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:23:y:2022:i:8:p:991-1016
    DOI: 10.1177/15270025221074700
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    Cited by:

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    2. László Csató & Dóra Gréta Petróczy, 2025. "Competitive balance in the UEFA Champions League group stage: Novel measures show no evidence of decline," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 352(1), pages 105-120, September.

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    JEL classification:

    • C44 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Operations Research; Statistical Decision Theory
    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques
    • Z20 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics - - - General

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