UEFA introduce new Champions League kit rule

UEFA’s new rule changes are promising to shake up the Champions League next season in the biggest revamp of the tournament since its rebranding in 1993.

Players will no longer be cup-tied when they move clubs in the January transfer window – as Barcelona’s Philippe Coutinho is this season following his move from Liverpool – and there are further changes to kick-off times, substitutions and matchday squads.

But there is one kit change rule that has gone slightly under the radar.

Because – perhaps in an attempt to boost the profile of the Europa League – UEFA have announced that teams who have won that competition (or the UEFA Cup) on three consecutive occasions or at least five times will be allowed to wear a special badge on their sleeve.

That is the same rule seen in the Champions League, where Real Madrid (12 times), AC Milan (seven), Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Barcelona (all five times) and Ajax (four times, but three consecutively) all sport a badge on their sleeve.

But when the new rule comes in next season, only Sevilla will be able to sport the badge – if they qualify for the Champions League at all.

They seem very unlikely to do that via La Liga as they currently sit sixth, 14 points behind fourth place Valencia, but they do face Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals of this season’s competition having beaten Manchester United in the last round.

Sevilla have won the Europa League five times, all since 2006, and also qualify for the badge via consecutive wins having lifted the trophy in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

The only other clubs to have won it at least three times are Inter Milan, Juventus and Liverpool, but none of them did it consecutively.