More teams, more games, a single league structure: this is how Europe’s top men’s club competition will look in 2024-25

When Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid conclude this season’s Champions League at Wembley on Saturday, the continent will wave goodbye to the current format. In 2024-25 a new system will be put in place that will bring more teams, more games and more money to be made.

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Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid are preparing to battle it out in the pinnacle of European football on Saturday night at Wembley, in front of 25,000 sponsors supping on pints of Gazprom and a handful of supporters from each club. This will be the end of Big Cup as we know it. After decades of appeasing the suits without causing too much harm to the competition, it seems Uefa has finally reached an end game when it comes to all that is logical with football.

If we are talking about the re-saleable variety in managers as action figures (yesterday’s Football Daily letters) then Roy Hodgson has a huge amount of incarnations. There’s Gentleman Roy for his general demeanour, Adventurer Roy for his varied career, Sailor Roy for his approach to scouting opponents, Bus Driver Roy for his approach to tactics and Maverick Roy for when he occasionally surprises. You could also have a Sidekick Ray toy as another potential revenue stream” – Andy Gill.

• Manager does not take success ‘for granted’ before United final
• Win would seal league and Cup Double in consecutive seasons

Pep Guardiola has warned Manchester City’s players that complacency could be their downfall if they presume the club’s success will last forever because such attitudes have cost others in the past.

City face Manchester United in the FA Cup final on Saturday with the aim of becoming the first club in history to do the league and FA Cup Double in consecutive seasons. If City defeat their most bitter rivals at Wembley it would be the 18th trophy of Guardiola’s eight-year tenure. In the same period United have won three.

Forward’s stellar form has led to individual and club titles this season as he looks to clinch the Double

‘To be world class you have to win games; he’s winning games,” Pep Guardiola said of Phil Foden after he inspired the comeback to defeat Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium in March. It was the local lad doing the damage against City’s most bitter rivals and he will be aiming to do it all again on Saturday to cap off his finest season.

A year ago Foden was readying himself for an identical FA Cup final but with one simple difference. On that occasion he had barely taken his seat on the bench when Ilkay Gündogan volleyed City into the lead after 12 seconds. The England international was eventually called upon to replace Kevin De Bruyne with 14 minutes remaining to see things through rather than be the main man.

St Pauli striker on his long road, the club’s political role and being the only English forward to win a title in Germany this term

“Everyone thought it would be Harry Kane winning a league but instead it is me,” Dapo Afolayan says of being the only English striker to win a title in Germany this season, which in turn has earned him the opportunity to test himself against the England captain next season in the Bundesliga.

The former Bolton player was an influential member of St Pauli’s promotion-winning side after swapping Greater Manchester for Hamburg 18 months ago. It has been a long journey for the 26-year-old, one in which Afolayan left Chelsea’s academy aged 14 in order to get the education he wanted, leading to a degree in civil engineering while playing part-time at Loughborough University and with Solihull Moors before being plucked from the bottom of the fifth tier by West Ham. Next season he will come up against some of the continent’s best. It is a long way from playing in the ninth tier in a team of students.

• Updates from the 4.15pm BST kick-off at Wembley
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Des Buckingham: “This is the most special day. I grew up in the area.

“We stuck to what we have done over the past two or three months. It is about enjoying the present.

A core of players have seen all or most of Pep Guardiola’s Etihad tenure and are on the verge of a sixth title winner’s medal

It takes a lot for Pep Guardiola to trust unconditionally, so staying the course with the Manchester City manager is not a straightforward business. Despite the constant trophies gleaming in the Etihad cabinet, decorated players have come and gone – but six have the chance of securing a sixth Premier League title alongside Guardiola on Sunday afternoon.

Ederson, Kyle Walker, John Stones, Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden have set the tone for much of the club’s success. A victory over West Ham will guarantee each a sixth winner’s medal, putting them on par with David Beckham and Phil Neville. De Bruyne was already a City first-teamer when Guardiola arrived in Manchester in 2016, while Foden was making headway in the academy. The other four were carefully selected by the club’s hierarchy and Guardiola.