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.

中文翻译：

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自 2015/16 赛季以来，欧洲冠军联赛的种子队就不是战略证明

公平在体育中有几种解释，其中之一是规则应该保证激励的兼容性，即在任何可行的情况下，团队都不会因为更好的结果而变得更糟。自 2015/16 赛季以来，最负盛名的年度欧洲俱乐部足球锦标赛 UEFA（欧洲足球协会联盟）冠军联赛的现行种子制度被证明违反了这一要求。特别是，如果冠军持有者通过在高级别联赛中获得冠军而获得首奖资格，则其名额将被分配给排名较低协会的球队，这可能会损害冠军持有者国内冠军的顶级俱乐部。然而，通过全国联赛填补所有空缺排除了不正当激励措施的存在。鼓励欧足联从 2021-24 周期开始引入这项政策。