The revamped 36-team Champions League will draw its first phase this Thursday in Monaco, in which each of the participants will learn the eight rivals they will face from September 17 to January 29, in search of the round of 16.
The 36 clubs will be grouped, according to their UEFA coefficient, into four pots of nine teams. Only the defending champion will not be ranked in pot 1.
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Real Madrid, who won the title in London by beating Borussia Dortmund in the last edition, will therefore be in this group alongside Manchester City, Bayern Munich, PSG, Liverpool, Inter, Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Barcelona. The same will happen in the following editions.
The draw at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco (6:00 p.m.) will be a hybrid, with a small manual section, to draw the corresponding balls for each team, and another digital section, in which software will randomly determine the rivals of each club.
The program will avoid two teams from the same country playing against each other and will add a new rule so that each club cannot have more than two rivals from another federation. For example, a Spanish team cannot play against another Spanish team and in this phase, it cannot meet more than two English teams.
The first phase, called the “league phase” by UEFA, will include eight rounds, from September 17 to January 29. All will be played on two dates – Tuesday and Wednesday – except for the last one, which will be unified on Wednesday and which could be decisive in establishing the round of 16. The schedule will not be known until Saturday 31.
The top eight teams will advance directly to the last 16. Those finishing between ninth and 24th will play a two-legged tie in February to complete the last 16, and those placed between 25th and 36th will be eliminated, with no option to advance to any other competition, as has been the case to date.
The competition will then continue in the current two-legged knockout format until the final on 31 May 2025 at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
The clubs finishing 1st to 8th in the league phase will be seeded in the round of 16 and will play the return match at home.
In the event of a draw, the first criterion for deciding will be the goal difference. Then, if the clubs had met, the result of the match, and if they had not met, the number of goals. Then, the number of victories.
The last round will see all of its matches played at the same time, a system that will also be applied in the Europa League and the Conference League.
This season will be the 70th edition of the competition, which was created as the European Cup in 1955 and included the participation of the champions of the national leagues.
Since then, the format has changed, some of which were due to demands from the clubs, and it has undergone several expansions, such as the 1992-1993 expansion to eight teams, the introduction of the group stage (2 out of 4 in 1993-94, 4 out of 4 in 1994-95 and 8 out of 4 in 1999-2000). In some periods, a second group stage was played, without quarter-finals or semi-finals, which disappeared in the 2003-2004 campaign.
The Europa League, which will be drawn on Friday 30th also in Monaco, will be played with the same system and requirements as the Champions League. It will also have a league phase with 36 clubs; a qualifying round prior to the last 16 and then direct knockout rounds from the last 16 to the semi-finals.
The first phase will run from September 25 to January 30 and the final will be at the San Mames stadium (Bilbao) on May 21.
The League will also change the group format to play a league phase with 36 teams in which each club will face six rivals, with three home games and three away games. It will run from October 3 to December 19 and will then be followed by a play-off, round of 16, semi-finals, and the final on May 28 in Wroclaw (Poland).
