Tribune. Two years ago, Tottenham won their Champions League group brilliantly ahead of Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. With 16 points, the Spurs were even the best group winner. The draw for the knockout stages, yet supposed to reward the group winners by avoiding too difficult a confrontation, offered them Juventus, who had finished second in his group, behind the formidable Barça.
This year, Manchester City (14 points) was the fourth best group winner ahead of Barcelona (14) and Liverpool (13), which did not stop it from falling on Real Madrid. At the same time, Valencia, the lowest-ranked group winner (11 points), inherited Atalanta Bergamo, the weakest group second (7 points).
On paper, the group winners are protected, since they can only meet second in the group. But often they are badly rewarded for their efforts.
Modification of the pot system
The problem got worse in 2015 when UEFA changed its seed system for the group stage draw. Previously, the four pots in the draw were all built around the UEFA club coefficient, pot 1 containing the top seven clubs on that index as well as the title holder.
Since 2015, pot 1 contains the national champions of the best European championships as well as the title holder (and, since 2018, the winner of the Europa League), the other three pots are always built according to the UEFA coefficient.
This means that pot 1 contains teams of disparate levels (like Barcelona and Spartak Moscow) and that pot 2 is stronger than in the past.
Consequently, it is more likely that two very strong teams will find themselves in the same group, and that there will be among the second in the group of cadors at the level of Real Madrid or Bayern Munich. And so that even the best group winner can have to face a "monster" in the round of 16.
We can do better, fairer and also more interesting: what if the group winners chose their opponent?
The best group winner (on the classic criteria: number of points, goal difference, number of goals scored) would choose his opponent among the second group first. UEFA could always impose that two clubs from the same country or from the same group cannot meet. Then the second best group winner would choose his opponent from the remaining second group, and so on.
