Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has slammed the new Champions League format ahead of their semi-final tie with Real Madrid.
The Blues have been mightily impressive since the German took charge at Stamford Bridge, succeeding club legend Frank Lampard, and beat Porto over two legs to earn their place in the final four of the competition.
Last week, Chelsea came under incredible scrutiny from their supporters, along with the Premier League's other 'Big Six', after announcing their plans to become a founding member of a European Super League.
The backlash and protests from the fan fallout commenced as UEFA signed off a new format for the Champions League to begin from the 2024/25 campaign.
And the former Paris Saint-Germain boss believes the Super League drama distracted the game from these changes and puts more pressure on squads by introducing more matches across the season.
'I am not sure if I like it, I can only see more games out of it and more games in the schedule that we have is very hard for me to be excited at all,' Tuchel said in his pre-match press conference.
'All these discussions about the Super League made us forget that we have a new format of the UCL.'
He also moaned that players and coaches taking part in the competition were left in the dark over the changes to the format.
'Did they ask any coach about this? I don’t think so, they didn’t ask me. Did they ask any player about it? I don’t think so,' he added.
'We have so many new formats; a new Nations League, World Championship for clubs is coming soon, more games, more teams.
'It is just more, and more, and more games but not more quality. Who should play these games? At the same time, we have three subs here in the Premier League.
'No I am not happy about this format at all.'
The adaptations to Europe's biggest club tournament will be introduced from 2024, with the one of the biggest changes seeing the number of participants rise from 32 to 36 teams.
Instead of having six group matches in a group stage with three other teams, group sizes will be enhanced into a single league stage including all participating teams.
Every club will now play minimum of 10 league stage games against 10 different opponents (five home games, five away).
The top eight clubs from the league stage will enter the knockout phase, while the teams finishing in ninth to 24th place will compete in a two-legged play-off to secure their path to the last 16 of the competition.