2024-08-28 10:56:28
The renewed Champions League with 36 teams will design its first stage through this Thursday’s draw in Monaco, in which each participant will meet their eight rivals from September 17 to January 29, in pursuit of the round of 16.
The 36 clubs will be grouped, according to their UEFA coefficient, into four pots of nine teams. For the defending champion only, the ranking of being in pot 1 will not be taken into account.
For this reason, Real Madrid, who were declared champions in London by beating Borussia Dortmund in the last edition, will be in this group along with Manchester City, Bayern Munich, PSG, Liverpool, Inter, Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Barcelona. The same thing will happen in the following editions.
The draw at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco (6:00 pm) will be hybrid, with a small manual section, to draw the corresponding balls for each team, and another digital one, in which software will randomly determine each club’s competitors.
The program will avoid facing two teams from the same country and a new rule will be added so that each club will not have more than two competitors from another confederation. For example, a Spanish team will not be able to face another Spanish team and in this stage they will not be able to meet more than two Englishmen.
The first step, called “league level” with UEFA, eight days, from 17 September to 29 January. They will all be played on two dates – Tuesday and Wednesday – except for the last one, which will be agreed on Wednesday and could be decisive in establishing the round of 16 draw. The calendar will not be known until Saturday the 31st.
The top eight will have direct access to the round of 16. Those who finish between ninth and 24th will play a two-legged final in February, to complete the round of 16, while those placed between 25 and 36 will be eliminated , without the option to move on to any other competition, as to date.
The competition will then continue with the current two-legged format, until the final on 31 May 2025 at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
The clubs that finish 1 to 8 in the league table will be placed in the round of 16 and will play the second game at home.
In the event of a tie, the first criterion to be determined is goal difference. Then, if the clubs had faced each other, the result was the confrontation, and if not, the number of goals. Later the number of victories.
On the last day they will play all their games at the same time, a system that will also be in place for the Europa League and the Conference League.
This season will be the 70th edition of the competition, which was created under the name of the European Cup in 1955 and the participation of the champions of the national leagues.
Since then, its format changes, some with demands from the background clubs, have gone through various expansions, for example 1992-1993 to eight teams, the introduction of the group stage (2 out of 4 in 1993-94; 4 out 4 in 1994-95 and 8 out of 4 in 1999-2000). In certain periods, the second group stage was played, without the quarter-finals and semi-finals, which disappeared in the 2003–2004 campaign.
The Europa League, which will also be drawn on Friday the 30th in Monaco, will be played with the same system and requirements as the Champions League. He will also have league rank with 36 clubs; qualifying round to the round of 16 and then direct highlights from the round of 16 to the semi-finals.
The first stage will last from September 25 to January 30 and the final will be at the San Mamés stadium (Bilbao) on May 21.
The Conference League will also change the group format to play a league stage with 36 teams where each club will face 6 opponents, with three games at home and three away. It will run from October 3rd to December 19th and then it will be “play off”round of 16, semi-finals and the final on 28 May in Wroclaw (Poland).
EFE
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