Champions League 2025/26: The 2 billion euro revolution

Clubs participating in the 2025/26 Champions League spent a total of 2 billion euros on transfers, led by Liverpool and Arsenal.

New Champions League spin

The concept of a “four-team group” is a thing of the past, and there is no such thing as a club playing six games against three fixed opponents in the Champions League group stage.

The history of the C1 Cup/Champions League has often seen reforms to suit the modern football trend. The latest change began in the 2024/25 season – with the coronation of PSG.

Champions League is about to enter a new round. Photo: UEFA

This is the second season of the Champions League group stage with 36 teams, playing in the same format as the national championship. Each team plays 8 matches – 4 home matches and 4 away matches.

This year's tournament has some rather unfamiliar names such as Kairat Almaty (Kazakhstan), Bodo Glimt (Norway) and Pafos (Cyprus).

The common goal of the teams: to enter the Top 8 to go straight to the round of 16, or to be in the Top 24 to participate in the play-off round before entering the knock-out stage.

Last season, the team in eighth place had 16 points. The club in 24th place had 11 points and qualified for the play-offs thanks to superior goal difference. The difference this season is probably not that big.

The new round of Champions League starts with everyone sharing the same ambition: to overthrow Luis Enrique's PSG.

Despite losing 3-0 to Chelsea in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup final, PSG were the superior team in terms of quality – even with hero Gigio Donnarumma left out.

The success of PSG – who beat Liverpool and Arsenal en route to their first title, and crushed Inter Milan 5-0 in the final – has ushered in a multi-billion-euro “transfer revolution” in Europe.

The billion euro revolution

Clubs that qualified for the 2025/26 Champions League group stage have spent more than €2 billion on transfers to upgrade their squads.

Just the six teams Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, Atletico and Real Madrid spent a total of €1.5 billion this summer (including deals for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup).

Much more modest are Inter Milan – last season's runners-up – and Barcelona – semi-finalists, but still mired in financial difficulties.

Real Madrid meets Man City again. Photo: EFE

Liverpool's most notable: 125 million euros for Florian Wirtz and 90 million euros for Hugo Ekitike - the two biggest blockbusters of the summer of 2025. Together with other deals, the total cost of the reigning Premier League champions is around 330 million euros.

Following them is Arsenal, who eliminated Real Madrid but fell to PSG in the semi-finals last season.

Arsenal followed with the signings of Martin Zubimendi (70 million), Eberechi Eze (69.3), Noni Madueke (56) and Swedish striker Viktor Gyokeres (65.8)... Mikel Arteta doesn't seem to stop there.

After years of being used to finishing second in the Premier League, watching Liverpool and Man City share the title, Arsenal are doing everything to win.

English football sets a record with six teams participating in the Champions League. Fans are waiting for the return of Man City, despite a difficult start to the season.

This season, Man City brought in Reijnders (55), Cherki (36) and Ait-Nouri (36). They are preparing to finalize the Donnarumma deal, while Pep Guardiola still dreams of Rodrygo.

Chelsea used the Club World Cup bonus to recruit a series of new faces, totaling 279 million euros. Enzo Maresca is also waiting for Alejandro Garnacho (who has reached an agreement with MU) and Fermin Lopez from Barca.

In the Spanish capital, Real Madrid spent 167 million on Mastantuono, Dean Huijsen, Alvaro Carreras and Alexander-Arnold.

Atletico spent 175 million on Alex Baena, Hancko, Cardoso, Raspadori, Thiago Almada, Ruggeri and Pubill. This figure is far less than the Premier League, but still competitive.

Bayern Munich did the same: they missed out on Wirtz but managed to get Luis Diaz for 75 million. Barca, in a tight financial situation, could only buy goalkeeper Joan Garcia (25 million euros) and borrow Rashford.

However, Barca are still among the top candidates for the championship title, mainly thanks to the talent of Lamine Yamal and the tactics of Hansi Flick.

The Champions League will kick off in 2 weeks. Fans are eagerly awaiting top matches like Real Madrid – Man City, Barca – PSG…

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/cup-c1-2025-26-cuoc-cach-mang-2-ty-euro-2437354.html