  Fairness has several interpretations in sports, one of them being that the
rules should guarantee incentive compatibility, namely, a team cannot be worse
off due to better results in any feasible scenario. The current seeding regime
of the most prestigious annual European club football tournament, the UEFA
(Union of European Football Associations) Champions League, is shown to violate
this requirement since the 2015/16 season. In particular, if the titleholder
qualifies for the first pot by being a champion in a high-ranked league, its
slot is given to a team from a lower-ranked association, which can harm a top
club from the domestic championship of the titleholder. However, filling all
vacancies through the national leagues excludes the presence of perverse
incentives. UEFA is encouraged to introduce this policy from the 2021-24 cycle
onwards.
