Speaking prior to Milan's eventual victory on penalties, out-going UEFA CEO Gerhard Aigner said the need to change the set-up of the tournament remained crucial to its on-going success commercially.
The 2003/04 tournament will revert to one group stage, instead of two, before going to a straight knockout competition with the round of 16.
Said Aigner: "We are totally, 100 per cent sure that this was a necessary step.
"We changed it at this stage because we are at the end of a contract, and we noticed already in the first year of the current contract that we had a problem, especially in the second group phase.
"That we might cause less income by this, that we have to accept, especially when it comes to gate receipts because fewer matches means fewer gate receipts. But we can say here, with good reason, that this reduction of the format has no implications economically, because so far we have exceeded our results in many markets.
"And where we haven't reached the amounts we have in the past, there is a general collapse of the market [in that country] which applies to national competitions and football in general in that market. So I think the moment was actually ideal for us to reduce the product, so that we can keep the value but improve the sporting perspective of the competition in the future."
Added UEFA communications director Mike Lee: "It will also be slightly rebranded as we want to strengthen the competition, and I have to say, in the discussions we've been having with clubs in recent weeks, particularly as we've been reporting back on the television deals that have been struck, and also the sponsorship deals, I think the resistance that was there at the initial announcements has gone and people are looking forward to an even stronger Champions' League."
UEFA's Champions' League will be rebranded as well as restructured, it was confirmed just prior to last night's final between AC Milan and Juventus.
