Day: July 31, 2025

The Champions League has defined football for over seven decades, immortalizing great clubs that managed to break logic and overcome giants to win the coveted trophy. Real Madrid is the most dominant club with 15 titles, but other historic clubs like AC Milan, Bayern Munich, and Liverpool have all been part of this competition that consecrates the best teams in Europe.

Starting with the 2024-25 season, the tournament underwent a substantial overhaul. It was expanded to 36 clubs from all over the world and moved from a group-based format to a knockout phase where each club plays a total of eight matches, four home games and four away. The round of 16 features two matches, or legs, where the team that scores more goals over the two legs advances. The draw is random with association protection, meaning that teams from the same country cannot be drawn against each other.

After the knockout phase, the top eight clubs advance to the final, which is now held in Paris. The remaining teams are divided into two paths: the Champions Path and the League Path. The Champions Path contains teams that qualify as champions of their domestic league, while the League Path includes runners-up, third-placed, and fourth-placed clubs from their respective leagues. The top four clubs from each path enter the knockout phase. The other slots will be filled using a system whereby the nine teams finishing ninth through sixteenth are placed into pots based on their five-year club coefficient. A computer will then draw the pairings for each match, ensuring that all teams play an equal number of games.

The 2023-25 ICC World Test Championship concluded with South Africa clinching the title at Lord’s, winning a dramatic final against defending champions Australia. Aiden Markram’s unbeaten century and a crucial partnership with Temba Bavuma helped the Proteas overcome a deficit of 69 runs, earning them their first ICC trophy in 27 years.

The World Test Championship was launched in 2019 as a means to add significance to bilateral Test series across a two-year cycle. Its format reflects the same principles as the annual World Cups for one-day and T20 international cricket, with countries ranked on their performance in each competition. The top two teams book a place in the final, and the winners receive the coveted ICC Test mace.

But the WTC has been subject to criticism – including a scathing assessment by Wisden, cricket’s ‘bible’, in which its editor described this week’s showpiece at Lord’s as a “shambles masquerading as a showpiece”. The ICC has been accused of adopting a sticking-plaster approach to the sport’s oldest and most endangered format.

In order to address some of these concerns, a number of changes have been suggested to the competition’s structure. This includes adding the three Test-playing nations that are currently omitted, and creating two six-team divisions with teams being promoted and relegated each year. There are also calls to change the points system, which currently deducts a point for each over that is bowled at an over rate below 90.