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July: New Champions League format
Sunday, 29 December 2002
UEFA announced that the format of the UEFA Champions League would change from the 2003/04 season. UEFA's Executive Committee decided to maintain a 32-team field and an opening group stage with eight groups of four teams, but the competition will then revert to a two-leg knockout competition starting with 16 teams. This means that the two teams reaching the final will play 13 matches starting from the group stage, compared with 17 at present.

Sporting and economic reasons
UEFA President Lennart Johansson explained the changes, which were made for sporting and economic reasons. “We believe this reduction in the size of the competition is in the long-term interests of everyone involved – clubs, players, fans, broadcasters, sponsors and European football in general,” said Mr Johansson. Meanwhile, UEFA Chief Executive Gerhard Aigner welcomed the reducing of the fixture burden on players, saying: “Commercially too, conditions are not favourable for generating more income, and we know there is a certain saturation when it comes to the transmission of football matches on television.”

Solidarity payments
Nearly €39.93m in Champions League solidarity payments was to be allocated by UEFA to the top leagues of its member associations – more than €1.35m more than the amount paid out the previous season.