The continent will bid farewell to its current format when Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid conclude this Champions League season at Wembley on Saturday. A new system will be implemented in 2024-25, bringing more teams, more games and more revenue.
What is the new format?
The group stage is gone. 36 teams will form one league instead of 32 teams divided into eight groups. Each team will play eight games – two more than the previous concept – against eight different opponents, four at home and four on the road. The top eight teams after the first stage will automatically advance to the top 16. The teams ranked 9th to 24th will advance through two rounds of play-offs. The bottom eight teams will be eliminated and will be eliminated from Europe because they do not fall into the Europa League. European League.
Teams will initially be divided into four groups based on UEFA seeding. Each participant will play against two teams from each group, one at home and one away. In theory, this would give the lowest-ranked team a greater chance of reaching the knockout stages, as they would face two equally matched teams. Previously they were grouped with three teams from higher tiers.
How will the playoffs and knockout stages work?
The teams ranked 9th to 16th will be the seeded teams in the playoff draw, which means that they will face the teams ranked 17th to 24th, and in principle they will play the second round at home. In the last 16, automatically qualified teams will be seeded and face a playoff winner.
The knockout stages will continue to be played over two legs, but clubs will for the first time be able to chart their route to the finals after the last 16 draw. The draw from then on will be similar to that of the Tennis Open, with the top two teams in the league stage unable to face each other until the final, although details of how this will be achieved are still being worked out. The final will be the only game not played midweek.
How long will it take?
More games means the league stage cannot be completed before Christmas, forcing each team to play two games in January. The schedule for the knockout rounds remains similar, but if a team reaches the finals through the playoffs, they will end up playing 17 games. This year’s finalists will each compete in 13 games.
Where will UEFA find its other four teams?
Italy and Germany, the two countries with the best collective performances of their clubs in this season’s UEFA tournament, will each receive an extra spot, which UEFA calls a European performance quota. Ahead of this season, it was decided to award a league stage spot to the third-placed club from a country without four guaranteed entrants – fifth-placed France. Another seat will be earned through qualifying. Normally four clubs come through the Championship route but now there are only five.
quick guide
Where do the 36 Champions League teams come from?
exhibit
Champions League Champion(1)
European League Champion(1)
England(4)
Spain(4)
Germany(4)
Italy(4)
France(3)
Netherlands(2)
Portugal(1)
Belgium(1)
Scotland(1)
Austria(1)
European performance locations(2)
Qualifying Tournament – Road to Championship(5)
Qualifying Rounds – League Path(2)
What knock-on effects will this have on England?
Champions League and Europa League clubs will be seeded for the first time in the Carabao Cup to separate them to help ease a congested schedule. The teams will advance to the third round, with the competition taking place over two weeks in September, coinciding with designated weeks of European football. Within two weeks of the third round of the League Cup, the Champions League will be played in the first week and the Europa League in the second week, which means that if Manchester City draws with Manchester United, it will be impossible to find a match date. Previously, European fixtures were allocated to six midweeks between September and December, but this will be extended to 10 midweeks by January.
There is a potential problem when the fifth round of the Carabao Cup begins, if Chelsea reach this stage they will have a Western Conference tie in the same week. There will be no replays in the FA Cup from the first round to free up space in the schedule.
