Football’s plan to foil hackers after bizarre moaning stunt

Organisers of the new Champions League draw that relies on a software program have claimed it will be fast and safe from hackers.
UEFA hired a specialist technology firm that will help create match pairings on Friday (from 3am AEST).
The 36 team, single league format has replaced the traditional group stage which was drawn manually with balls picked from bowls.
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Last year, unexplained moaning noises disrupted the Euro 2024 draw.
The interruption, which seemed to sound like sexual noises, was clearly heard for several minutes on the broadcast from a concert hall in Hamburg.
A British prankster claimed credit for the stunt and a Twitter clip appeared to show him inside the venue during a rehearsal.
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David Silva at the Euro 2024 draw. Twitter
“We have taken all steps we possibly can to make it as safe and secure as possible,” said David Gill of AE Live, the British software firm that designed the draw process for a gala ceremony in Monaco.
“This is not new for us.”
Gill said the firm also worked with FIFA and faced a “supply chain attack” after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
After the invasion started in 2022, FIFA and UEFA removed Russia from qualifying playoffs for the 2022 World Cup ahead of the draw.
UEFA’s Giorgio Marchetti had confidence in AE Live, which has not shared its software code with the Champions League organiser.
Asked about conspiracy theories regarding the integrity of UEFA draws, Marchetti admitted “many people didn’t trust us in the past.”
“They thought the ball was hot or cold or God only knows which systems to manipulate the balls. People can trust us,” Marchetti said.
UEFA spent 21 years with the traditional Champions League format – 32 teams each playing six games in a group to advance to the round of 16.
The new system has 36 teams each playing eight games against eight different opponents, with four at home and four away.
The top eight in the standings in January advance direct to the round of 16.
The teams ranked 9-16 are drawn to face teams 17-24 in two leg knockout playoffs to join the last 16.
The bottom 12 teams are eliminated.
Nacho of Real Madrid lifts the Champions League trophy after his team’s victory. Getty
This format created so many permutations of possible pairings that an old style manual draw would have taken several hours instead of about 30 minutes.
Instead, each ball will be picked from one of four bowls of seeded teams before the software decides the eight opponents that are quickly displayed.
“The response of the system will happen in a few seconds so there is no possibility for anyone to intervene,” Marchetti said.
On Thursday (AEST), historic rivals Dinamo Zagreb and Red Star Belgrade won their Champions League qualifying playoffs and can now be drawn to meet for the first time in 33 years.
Dinamo and Red Star last played each other in 1991 in the Yugoslavian league that started to break up after that season as ethnic tensions moved toward war in the Balkans.
One year earlier, their match in Zagreb saw violent clashes in the stadium.
Dinamo and Red Star were joined by Lille and Slovan Bratislava, completing the 36 team lineup.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEEDINGS
Pot 1: Real Madrid (Spain), Manchester City (England), Bayern Munich (Germany), Paris Saint-Germain (France), Liverpool (England), Inter Milan (Italy), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Leipzig (Germany), Barcelona (Spain)
Pot 2: Bayer Leverkusen (Germany), Atletico Madrid (Spain), Atalanta (Italy), Juventus (Italy), Benfica (Portugal), Arsenal (England), Club Brugge (Belgium), Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine), AC Milan (Italy)
Pot 3: Feyenoord (Netherlands), Sporting Lisbon (Portugal), PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands), Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia), Salzburg (Austria), Lille (France), Red Star Belgrade (Serbia), Young Boys (Switzerland), Celtic (Scotland)
Pot 4: Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia), Monaco (France), Sparta Prague (Czech Republic), Aston Villa (England), Bologna (Italy), Girona (Spain), Stuttgart (Germany), Sturm Graz (Austria), Brest (France)