Friday, August 30, 2024 - The 2024/25 UEFA Champions League is set to kick off with a significant overhaul in its format, following the draw that took place on Thursday in Monaco.
The revamped structure introduces an expanded competition
featuring more teams, a new league format, and additional knockout rounds.
More Teams, No More Groups: The updated Champions League
format will see 36 clubs compete in the tournament, an increase from the
previous 32. This expansion allows for additional representation from Europe's
top leagues. France’s Ligue 1 now secures three automatic qualification spots,
while Germany and Italy, as the leagues with the highest UEFA coefficients from
the previous season, also gain extra berths. Another slot is allocated to a
national champion emerging from the qualifying rounds.
The most radical change comes with the dissolution of the
traditional group stage. Instead, the 36 teams will be placed into one large
league, adopting the 'Swiss system' commonly used in chess. This format allows
each team to play eight matches against different opponents, replacing the old
group stage’s six matches.
A Lot More Games: Under the new format, each team will play
eight games in the league phase—two more than in the previous group stage
format. The 36 teams will be divided into four seeded pots, and each team will
face two opponents from each pot, with one match at home and one away. Notably,
no club will face another team from its own domestic league, and a club can
face a maximum of two teams from any single country. This expansion means that
the league phase will now extend into January, with the total number of matches
increasing from 96 to 144.
Extra Knockout Round: The new format also introduces a
play-off round. After the league phase, the top eight teams will automatically
progress to the last 16. The teams finishing 9th to 24th will enter a
two-legged knockout tie to compete for the remaining spots in the last 16.
These ties will be seeded, based on the teams' positions in the league phase.
The bottom 12 teams in the league phase will be eliminated,
with no access to the UEFA Europa League, marking a departure from past
editions where teams could drop down to the second-tier competition.
The changes have been introduced as part of UEFA's efforts
to increase competitiveness and deliver more high-stakes matches early in the
tournament.
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