From the 2024/25 season, UEFA clubs competitions, i.e. the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League, will move away from the 32 team group stage format and follow a new 36 team league phase format.
But how does this format work, what will the draw look like and why is this change being brought about?
Here are the answers to all those questions:
For the purpose of simplification, we will focus only on the Champions League to explain this format.
The new format will have 4 additional teams besides the regular 32 teams that would qualify for the previous group stage. These 4 teams will be determined as follows:
Slot One: This place will go to the team that finished third in the league of the association that is ranked 5th in the UEFA association club coefficient ranking from previous season.
This season, it was awarded to the French club Brest, who finished 3rd in Ligue 1, which is 5th in the UEFA association club coefficient ranking.
Slot Two: This place will be awarded to a domestic champion by extending from four to five the number of clubs qualifying via the Champions path of the competition's qualifying process, which will consist of four qualifying rounds.
Slot Three and Four: These two spots will be awarded as extra spots to the two best performing leagues in UEFA competitions, i.e. leagues whose clubs performed well and reached far into the latter stages of the European competitions, based on the association coefficient calculated for the year.
For the 2024/25 season, the Bundesliga and Serie A were awarded these spots, which allowed Borussia Dortmund and Bologna FC 1909 to qualify for the 2024/25 UCL.
The league phase will see the 36 teams play 8 matches against different opponents, 4 of which will be played at home and 4 away.
To determine these ties, the teams will be seeded into 4 pots, each with 9 clubs in it.
The seeding will be done based on where the clubs finished in their leagues and what their league's coefficient is, among other things.
Then the teams will be drawn against 2 teams from each pot, playing one match against a team from each pot at home, and one away. No team will play more than one team from a country.
The pots for this year's UCL are as follows:
Pot 1: Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Internazionale, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, FC Barcelona
Pot 2: Bayer Leverkusen, Atlético Madrid, Atalanta, Juventus, Benfica, Arsenal, Club Brugge, Shakhtar Donetsk, AC Milan
Pot 3: Feyenoord, Sporting CP, PSV Eindhoven, Dinamo Zagreb, FC Salzburg, Lille, Red Star Belgrade, Young Boys, Celtic
Pot 4: Slovan Bratislava, AS Monaco, Sparta Prague, Aston Villa, Bologna, Girona, VfB Stuttgart, Sturm Graz, Brest
As stated before, the teams will be placed in a 36 team league table. The teams will play 8 matches with the aim to finish within the first 24 spots, but more so within the top 8.
At the end of the league phase, the top 8 teams will directly enter the round of 16. Teams finishing 9th to 24th will play in a two-legged Knockout phase play-offs to qualify for the round of 16.
Unlike the previous format, no teams will be dropped down the Europa League.
UEFA has also provided each competition with an exclusive match-weeks.
In the weeks UCL matches are played, UEL and Conference matches will not be played, which will also be followed for the other two competitions. The final match for all teams in the league stage will be played simultaneously.
UCL matches will be played on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays. UEL matches be played on Wednesdays and Thursdays and Conference League matches will be played on Thursdays.
The UCL league phase will begin on September 17, 2024 and end on January 29, 2025.
The draw for the the Knockout phase play-offs will be determined based on their positions in the table, among other factors.
The winners of the two-legged ties will qualify to play against the top 8 in the Round of 16.
From the Round of 16, no changes have been made from the previous format.
Two-legged ties will be played all the way up to the final.
The final will be one-off match,
The UCL final will be held on May 31, 2025 at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany.
UEFA's official reasoning is that the new format will give clubs the opportunity to test themselves against a wider range of opponents and raise the prospect for fans of seeing the top teams go head to head more often and earlier in the competition, resulting in more competitive matches for every club across the board.
Besides that, monetary reasons also exist.
Higher number of matches mean more revenue. The number of matches have been increased from 125 to 189 matches in UCL, and the other competitions will also see a similar increase.
For fans, exclusive match-weeks for each competition also means more viewership for each competition. And the format, as they have stated, will allow for more competition between the clubs and high caliber matches.