UEFA presented this Monday the new format based “on sporting merit” for the Champions League starting next season, when it will say goodbye to the traditional group stage of 32 teams to make way for a ‘liguilla’ in the 36 teams will participate, with the top 8 teams advancing directly to the two-legged playoffs.
The governing body of European football, which is already aware of the project presented by the Super League, completed the design of the ‘new’ Champions League after “extensive consultations with the main interested parties”, approving this final format and the calendar of the European competitions of clubs on May 10, 2022, following UEFA’s decision on April 19, 2021 to introduce a new competition system.
“We are totally committed to respecting the fundamental values of sport and defending the principle of open competitions, with a classification based on sporting merit, totally in line with the European sports model based on solidarity,” said the president of UEFA, Aleksander Ceferin, “really satisfied” with the support the format received. “Another proof that European football is more united than ever,” he celebrated.
The main change is the abandonment of the usual group stage, which includes 32 participants divided into eight groups of four. Starting in the 2024/25 season, 36 clubs will participate in an initial league. All of them will play eight games in this new phase, four at home and four away. They will no longer play two duels against three rivals – at home and away.
To determine the eight rivals, the teams will initially be classified into four seeding groups. Each team will have to face two rivals from each of those groups, playing a match against a team from each group at home and another away.
According to UEFA, clubs will have the opportunity to face a “wider range” of rivals, allowing “fans to see the best teams face each other more often and at earlier stages of the competition.”
Qualification for the Champions League will continue to depend on a club’s final position in its domestic competition, combined with each association’s position in the UEFA club coefficient rankings.
Thus, the first place will be for the club ranked third in the national championship in fifth position on the access list, determined by the coefficient classification. The second place will be awarded to a national champion, expanding the number of clubs classified through the Champions route from four to five. Places three and four will go to the associations with the best collective performance of their clubs in the previous season.
After this league phase, the double-leg playoffs will arrive, as at present. The first eight classified teams will advance directly to these round of 16, while those from ninth to twenty-fourth will compete in a playoff – also a two-legged one – to earn their ticket. Teams that finish in 25th place or worse will be eliminated, without access to the Europa League.
In the knockout phase, the teams ranked between 9th and 16th will be seeded in the draw for that repechage, which means that they will face a team ranked between 17th and 24th, in principle with the second leg in home. The eight clubs that win the playoffs will advance to the round of 16, where they will face one of the top eight teams, who will be seeded in the round of 16.
Starting with the round of 16, the competition will follow its current format of knockout rounds until reaching the final, which will be played at a neutral venue selected by UEFA. All matches leading up to the final will continue to be played during the week, “recognising the importance of the national match calendar across Europe, while the final will continue to be played on a Saturday,” UEFA reported.
“There is a reason why European football is one of the most successful and popular sports in the world. It never stops. Since the inaugural competition, known as the European Champion Clubs’ Cup, kicked off in 1955, UEFA has continually evolved and adapted the UEFA Champions League to keep pace with broader changes,” UEFA argued in your statement.