The president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, gave a long interview to the 'CNN' network during the Asian pre-season tour of the Blaugrana team. One of the topics addressed by the president was the UEFA Champions League, the main objective of Hansi Flick's team for 2025/26.
Barça is coming from reaching the semi-finals for the first time in the last six years in the last edition. With the new format, the 'culés' were the second best team in the all-against-all league, adding five wins, one draw and one loss in eight matchdays. Only Liverpool scored more points than the Catalans.
Joan Laporta, satisfied with the new Champions League format
In this regard, Laporta praised the change of format, leaving behind the group stage to move to an all-against-all system. The initial phase now extends until January and allows the top eight finishers to advance directly to the round of 16.
"I congratulate President Ceferin for how he has improved the competition. I hope we have the opportunity next season", began by saying the 'culé' president. As current champion of Spain, Barça will be part of 'pot 1' in the draw scheduled for August 28 at the UEFA headquarters in Switzerland.
The league phase starts on Tuesday, September 16 and the Blaugrana team, on the day of the draw, will know whether or not they have to play the first matchday as locals. In that case, they would have to resolve the UEFA license for a Spotify Camp Nou with a partial capacity of 27,000 spectators.
PSG, the rival to beat in the next Champions League for Laporta
Similarly, Joan Laporta did not skimp on praise for the current champion of Europe, Paris Saint-Germain. "I think PSG did very well last year, they won the Champions League, the French league... They played good football. They have a good coach and a good team and players", commented the 'culé' president.
In that sense, 'Jan' revealed his desire to see a Barça-PSG in 2026, being this the rival to beat in the next season. "Unfortunately, we did not play the final against them. But everyone who likes football says that we were the two most competitive teams, in better shape and that we played the best football in the world last season", he argued.
He also added: "Let's see if we can measure ourselves in this one, to see which of the two is better, with respect to the rest of the clubs. Maybe this year another team appears...". For the moment, Liverpool threatens as one of the great candidates, after investing more than 300 million in signings this summer. Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike, for now, are their main reinforcements.
"(Ceferin) knows about football and enjoys it; he will surely like to see a match between Barça and PSG. I hope we have that opportunity next season"