By Eleanor EWN • Published: 29 Aug 2024 • 13:47 • 4 minutes read
Can Real Madrid win their 16th Champions League in Munich? Credit: Shutterstock.
The new-look Champions League draw will take place today at 6pm (Spanish time) as Europe’s biggest teams discover their league phase opponents.
The Champions League has undergone a significant revamp ahead of this year’s competition, seeing the number of matches in the new format rise from 125 to 189. The eventual winners, to be crowned 31 May, 2025, will play 17 matches before lifting the most coveted prize in European football. Another significant change will mean some games being played on Thursday nights as well as Tuesdays and Wednesdays, adding another night of excitement for football fans across the continent.
There are two headline changes to this year’s competition. The first is the inclusion of 36 teams, up from 32 in previous years. The second, in a significant departure from what fans have been used to, is the introduction of a single league phase including all the participating teams.
The traditional format of a group phase comprising eight groups of four has been scrapped. This means each team will play at least eight games in the first phase of the competition against eight different teams. This is vastly different from the old format, in which six games were played against three other teams- three at home, and three away.
Teams won’t play against a side from their own domestic league- though English and Scottish teams could come up against each other in the league phase. UEFA will confirm any other restrictions this evening ahead of the draw.
The top eight sides in the league will qualify automatically for the knockout rounds. Teams finishing in ninth to 24th place will compete in a single two-legged play-off to secure their places in the last 16. The bottom-ranked teams- from 25th to 36th place- will be eliminated from all competitions.
Unlike in previous competitions, teams that don’t qualify for the knockout stages won’t qualify for the Europa league.
The draw will also be different as teams don’t need to be placed in different groups. However, they’ve already been categorised into four “pots” decided by their ranking. For example, Pot 1 contains the strongest teams including the current holders- Real Madrid.
The draw will start with all 36 teams manually drawn on stage. Then, for every team manually drawn, automated software will randomly draw eight opponents across the four pots. The software will also decide which fixtures are home and away.
POT 1: Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Barcelona
POT 2: Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta, Juventus, Benfica, Arsenal, Club Brugge, Shakhtar Donetsk, AC Milan.
Pot 3: Feyenoord, Sporting Lisbon, PSV Eindhoven, Dinamo Zagreb, Red Bull Salzburg, Lille, Red Star Belgrade, Young Boys, Celtic.
Pot 4: Slovan Bratislava, Monaco, Sparta Prague, Aston Villa, Bologna, Girona, Stuttgart, Sturm Graz, Brest.
Fans have become used watching their favourite teams being drawn live on stage by ex-footballers or esteemed managers. This year though, the system is being automated to save time. This is because the expanded competition would take up to four hours and require around 1,000 balls if done manually!
Questions are bound to be raised by the use of a computer system for the draw. UEFA says it’s confident that it will be safe from an outside cyberattack. Fairness will be ensured by using two backup software systems that will be audited by Ernst & Young.
The finalised fixture list will be released on Saturday 31 August.
Each team can face a maximum of two sides from each country. They won’t face a team from their own domestic league.
These are the dates for the initial league stage:
Fixture dates will be confirmed on 31 August.
The 2024/25 UEFA Champions League season will take place in Munich at the Allianz Arena on May 31, 2025.
The Europa League and the Europa Conference League will also change formats and also feature 36 teams in each. Like the new-look Champions League, the Europa League will feature eight matches against eight different opposition teams in the league phase.
In the Europa Conference League – now called the UEFA Conference League – teams will have six matches against six different opponents in the league phase, played between September and December.
The knockout phases of the competitions will take place through the second half of the season and culminate at the end of the campaign, as they do now.
Are you looking forward to the new format or do you think UEFA’s endless tinkering has gone one step too far? How do you think the extra games will affect your favourite team? Let us know in the comments!
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