File photo of Kylian Mbappe© AFP
Real Madrid's star footballer Kylian Mbappe's X (formerly Twitter) account was hacked on Thursday and a controversial post about Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi has already gone viral. Fans were left stunned as a number of provocative posts were published from Mbappe's account. One of the posts was about the long-standing Messi-Ronaldo rivalry and it drew a lot of attention from football fans. The hackers did not stop there as the account made posts about Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham. However, the account was recovered and the posts were all deleted.
Mbappe recently completed a sensational move from PSG to Real Madrid and his first trophy with the club came with their win at the UEFA Super Cup where he also scored his first goal.
— george (@StokeyyG2) August 29, 2024
Meanwhile, a new era in European club football begins on Thursday when the draw takes place in Monaco for an expanded UEFA Champions League featuring a radically changed format.
European football's governing body is selling what it describes as "a thrilling new future" for the game on the continent with more teams playing more matches, and more prize money on offer.
UEFA needs to generate hype around the new format, because there is a risk -- in the beginning at least -- that fans will find it confusing compared to the old model.
For the last 21 years, the Champions League had consisted of a group stage in which 32 clubs were split into eight groups of four, each playing six games. The top two in each group qualified for the knockout phase.
The new version will feature 36 clubs with everyone playing eight matches, but all teams pooled together into one giant league rather than in groups.
Clubs will still be split into four seeded pots of nine teams, with every participant given two opponents from each pot.
The top eight in the final ranking go through to the last 16, while the next 16 sides advance to an intermediate play-off round and the remainder go out.
The new format was introduced against the backdrop of the threat by Europe's biggest clubs to break away and form their own Super League.
(With AFP inputs)