Teams learn fate for upcoming Champions League season under new league format

The 36 teams competing in the upcoming 2024/25 UEFA Champions League – the most prestigious competition in European club football – learned who they will play in the competition’s newly revised format after the draw took place in Monaco on Thursday.

Teams were assigned their eight opponents – two from each of the four pots – in the new league phase through the help of technology.

First, teams were manually picked from a bowl by former Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon before five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo pressed a button to begin the scheduling process by a computer, with the opponents appearing on screen shortly afterwards.

Reigning champion Real Madrid will face the team it beat in last year’s final, Borussia Dortmund, at home, with a trip to Liverpool among its eight fixtures.

2022/23 champion Manchester City was also handed a rematch of its victorious final against Inter Milan, as well as away trips to Paris Saint-Germain and Italian giant Juventus in its eight match-ups.

PSG looks to have one of the toughest draws of the Pot 1 teams, with games against City, Bayern Munich, Atlético Madrid and Arsenal selected for the French club.

The match dates and kick-off times will be announced on Saturday.

So how will the Champions League work starting this 2024/25 season?

According to UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin, the new format was passed unanimously by the organization’s executive committee and will see qualification “based on sporting merit.”

From this season, UEFA hopes, fans will get to see more top-level matches earlier in the competition with higher stakes in each game.

The primary change is that 32 teams will no longer compete in eight groups of four during the group stages. Instead, the opening round will be an expanded 36-team stage in which the teams participate in a single league.

Each team will play eight matches against eight different clubs, four at home and four away. The teams each club plays will be selected from four seeded pots (based on ranking) with two opponents being drawn from each – with one home game and one away game per pot.

This is a departure from the former group-stage format, in which teams played against the three other teams in their group twice (one home and one away game per opponent).

UEFA says that it wants clubs to test themselves against a wider range of opposition and believes that the top teams will “go head to head more often and earlier in the competition” in the new format.

The top eight teams in the league will qualify automatically for the knockout round, and the teams ranked ninth to 24th will have to compete in a two-legged play-off to determine who also reaches the last 16.

Unlike the current format, there will be no opportunity for teams to qualify for the Europa League as those finishing 25th or lower, as well as those who lose their play-off tie, will be eliminated.

The victorious teams in the play-off round will then face the top eight seeded teams in the first knockout round (last-16 stage) before the quarterfinals, semifinals and a showpiece, one-off final. The 2025 final will be staged at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany.

Will the Europa League and Conference League be affected?

The Europa League, Europe’s second-tier club competition, will follow the same, revamped format as the Champions League next season.

The Europa Conference League will be rebranded as the UEFA Conference League and will see teams play six matches against six different opponents in the league phase.

Both competitions will also have 36 teams.

When will the games take place?

The league phase of the Champions League and Europa League will take place between September and January, while the Conference League’s first stage will be held between September and December.

Games will still be midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday) and each of the three leagues will have their own exclusive match week.

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