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How Does The New Champions League Format Work? All You Need To Know Ahead Of The 2024/25 Season
Cai is a news and features writer that specialises in football, but has experience covering a variety of other sports, including darts, basketball, American football, MMA, boxing and more. He holds a degree in Football Journalism (BA Hons) from the University of Derby, and worked with Nottingham Forest FC and Burton Albion FC throughout his studies. Cai also has experience working in social media with the Football Association of Wales, where he worked on a freelance basis, and has also been an accredited writer in the JD Cymru Premier for both Y Clwb Pêl-Droed and welshfootie since the 2019/20 season.
Get to know Cai Parry betterPublished29 Aug 2024
The 2024/25 edition of the UEFA Champions League will mark a new era for the competition thanks to a brand new format, but how exactly will it work?
All 36 teams competing in the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League league phase have now been finalised, and as we edge closer and closer to the competition getting underway, we’re taking a look at how the new format will work.
Of course, the previous format, which employed a ‘group stage’, saw 32 teams drawn into eight groups of four, with the top two advancing to the knockout stage, third place dropping into the Europa League, and fourth place exiting Europe altogether.
This has now been completely scrapped and replaced by a ‘league phase’, and all teams will now be in one 36-team league, where they will face eight different clubs, playing four games at home and four games away.
In terms of the draw, teams will be assigned a position in one of the four pots based on their UEFA club coefficient ranking, and they will be drawn to play against two teams from each pot, one at home and one away, using UEFA’s new automated software.
Teams will not be able to face other sides from their own national associations, and they will only be able to face a maximum of two teams from any one other national association.
ℹ️ New format. New draw.#UCLdraw | #UELdraw | #UECLdraw pic.twitter.com/QKTwVPMhQU
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 20, 2024
How Will The New Champions League Format Work?
Teams that finish in the top eight of the league phase after all fixtures are fulfilled will automatically advance to the last-16 in the knockout stage, where the format remains unchanged from previous seasons.
Sides that finish between ninth and 24th will enter a two-legged playoff round, with the teams ranked from ninth to 16th being seeded in the draw, where they’ll battle it out for the final eight positions in the last-16.
Losing sides in the playoffs, as well as teams ranked 25th to 36th, are eliminated from Europe, with no teams dropping down into the Europa League under the new format.
As has been the case for many years in the Champions League now, two-legged quarter-finals and semi-finals will follow the last-16, and the final will continue to be played at a neutral venue, with this year’s being at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
Who Will Compete In The 2024/25 Champions League League Phase?
Pot 1:
Real Madrid (ESP), Manchester City (ENG), Bayern Munich (GER), Paris Saint-Germain (FRA), Liverpool (ENG), Inter (ITA), Borussia Dortmund (GER), RB Leipzig (GER), Barcelona (ESP)
Pot 2:
Bayer Leverkusen (GER), Atletico Madrid (ESP), Atalanta (ITA), Juventus (ITA), Benfica (POR), Arsenal (ENG), Club Brugge (BEL), Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR), AC Milan (ITA)
Pot 3:
Feyenoord (NED), Sporting Lisbon (POR), PSV Eindhoven (NED), Dinamo Zagreb (CRO), RB Salzburg (AUT), LOSC Lille (FRA), Crvena Zvezda (SRB), Young Boys (SUI), Celtic (SCO)
Pot 4:
Slovan Bratislava (SVK), Monaco (FRA), Sparta Prague (CZE), Aston Villa (ENG), Bologna (ITA), Girona (ESP), Stuttgart (GER), Sturm Graz (AUT), Brest (FRA)