NYON/SANTIAGO: UEFA faces going back to the courts in response to a claim by Chilean sports consultancy MatchVision which is reportedly demanding €20m in damages over the provenance of the new Champions League format.

MatchVision claims that the format adopted from the 2024-25 season had been plagiarized from a model the Chileans had devised and presented to UEFA back in 2013 without initial interest.

The company claims to have registered a trademark in 2006 and its recognition by FIFA as a form of intellectual property.

UEFA’s 36-teamm, eight-matchday set-up is based on a familiar system known as the Swiss model and which has long been used in activities such as chess and bridge and collectible card games such as Pokémon or Magic: The Gathering. It was first invented in Zurich in 1889.

The key difference, however, is that in Swiss-system tournaments, only the first round is predetermined by a ranking, while in subsequent rounds, winners face winners and losers face losers — gradually narrowing the field and maintaining balance at the top. For logistical and broadcasting reasons, UEFA’s version instead features a random draw of all eight rounds before the competition begins, a simpler choice, but one that inevitably produces fewer big matches and more mismatches.

That small but significant twist, MatchVision claims, was its own invention. It claims that attempt to negotiate with UEFA have been rebuffed or ignored.

They describe themselves as “creators of mathematical algorithms applied in various fields, especially in sports.” In recent years, they tried several times to contact UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, again without success. So, the only remaining option was a lawsuit for misappropriation of intellectual property.

UEFA has three weeks in which to head off a court process.

####