Champions League’s iconic anthem set to CHANGE for the new season – as fans brand the new version ‘terrible’
- UEFA is making several changes for the 2024-25 European football season
- A big change is that the European Football Association will change its theme music
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UEFA has sparked controversy online after unveiling a new Champions League television intro for the 2024-25 football season, with some fans questioning whether the new theme music is a belated April Fools’ joke.
It comes as the governing body makes some of the biggest changes to the iconic competition. This year’s tournament will follow a new format, moving away from the traditional group stage format and instead featuring a revamped league phase.
However, some fans are not happy with the new changes being implemented. Many are questioning why UEFA has chosen to change the chilling Champions League theme music that has provided the backdrop to so many iconic European football nights since the 1992-93 season.
The anthem, officially titled ‘Champions League’, has been the backdrop to many great European football nights over the years. Players from all over the world have dreamed of taking the stage to the theme tune, which is based on Georg Friedrich Handel’s Zadok the Priest.
UEFA has sparked controversy online after unveiling the new Champions League television intro for the 2024-25 football season
This comes as the umbrella organisation plans to implement some of the biggest changes to the iconic competition this season
The revamped television intro features some of the competition’s biggest stars, including Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Jnr, all performing to the new theme song in the background.
While the theme song does not deviate significantly from the original anthem, fans online have noticed that UEFA has adopted a different composition with new vocals.
While it remains to be seen whether the original song will be played before matches, UEFA’s new TV intro has been branded ‘awful’ by some fans online, with some wondering if the change was ‘a joke’.
“Please tell me this is an April Fools joke in August, please tell me this isn’t true, please?” wrote one person on X (formerly Twitter).
Another wrote: ‘Terrible. Furthermore, there is still a sentence missing in Italian and Spanish, the two most important championships of the UCL.’
“This is horrible,” another added, while another fan was left mostly flabbergasted, writing, “WTF” with an “angry face” emoji.
The 2023-24 Champions League television launch
Several players, including Erling Haaland (right), also feature in the new television intro
Football fans have spoken out against the change to the iconic theme song, with some asking: ‘Is this an April Fools’ joke in August?’
This year’s new structure will no longer see teams play three home and away matches in a league format
“Thumbs down, the original is epic, this is meh,” said another, while another wrote: “UEFA are doing everything they can to make football unwatchable.”
This year’s new format means that teams will no longer play each other three times, home and away.
Teams now compete in a league format to qualify for the knockout stage of the tournament, playing against eight different opponents, four of which are home games and four away games.
According to UEFA, the new format will allow teams to “test themselves against a wider range of opponents”. The top eight teams in the competition will automatically qualify for the round of 16, while the teams finishing ninth to 24th in the standings will compete in a two-leg knockout play-off to determine the final eight spots.