New Champions League Format Explained
The Champions League is getting another revamp for the 2024/25 season that UEFA hopes will keep the big clubs happy and well away from their failed European Super League plan.
European football’s governing body is stripping out the 32-team, eight-group format in favour of a 36-team mega league.
Thankfully not everyone will play each other. That would create a new league bigger than most domestic competitions. Instead, Champions League teams will play only a handful of group games and compete to secure safe passage to the last-16.
So, it’s goodbye to the Champions League as we know it and hello to a whole new tournament structure. This guide will take you through the new Champions League and explain how it works for the upcoming season.
What Is The New Champions League Format?
The new Champions League format consists of 36 teams competing in one big league. Each team will play eight games – four at home, four away – against opponents across an equal number of seedings.
Nine teams will be placed in each pot. Each team will face two opponents from each pot, which makes eight games per team. UEFA is scrapping home and away games in the group stage, so rather than playing four teams twice, each side will take on eight separate opponents.
Teams that finish in the top eight in the league will qualify directly to the last-16. Those that finish ninth to 24th will compete in a two-legged playoff to join them. Those that finish 25th and below exit European football and don’t even fall into the Europa League.
How Does The New Champions League Work?
The new Champions League will work by splitting 36 teams into four equal pots of nine. Teams will then be drawn according to their seed and be matched up with two teams apiece from each pot.
For example, Manchester City could draw:
Pot 1:
- Real Madrid (h)
- Inter Milan (a)
Pot 2:
- Bayer Leverkusen (a)
- Club Brugge (h)
Pot 3:
- Sporting Lisbon (a)
- Feyenoord (h)
Pot 4:
- Stade Brest (a)
- Sturm Graz (h)
UEFA has had to find eight midweek spots to fulfil the Champions League schedule for the 2024/25 season. The only way to feasibly do this is to push the group phase into 2025, with two gameweeks taking place in January.
Champions League New Rules
UEFA have introduced a string of new rules for the revamped Champions League format, particularly with regard to qualifying. However, you'd be wrong in thinking having four more teams enter this year would benefit clubs from the "smaller" leagues in Europe.
Here are the new Champions League rules to be aware of…
Qualifying:
Champions League qualifying will remain the same, with clubs competing either in the 'Champions' route or the 'League' route. There are three qualifying rounds before the final, two-legged playoff round. Two teams qualify from the 'League' path and five from the 'Champions' path.
The four additional qualifying spots will be differently allocated.
Spot 1: The club ranked third in the league of the association that is fifth on the coefficient list. In 2024/25 that side is Brest from France.
Spot 2: An additional spot for a domestic champion qualifying through the 'Champions' path.
Spot 3 and 4: Dubbed the 'European Performance Spot', these two places are awarded to the associations with the 'best collective performance by their clubs in the previous season'. Italy and Germany achieved this last season, so Bologna and Dortmund will make the league stage.
League Phase
Teams will play eight games in the league phase, rather than six group games. Teams will play four home and four away games against eight individual opponents. There will be no reverse ties until the knockout stage.
There will be additional matchdays on 21-22 January and 29 January 2025 to cater for the extra gameweeks.
Knockouts
The top eight teams in the league phase progress to the last-16, while teams ranked ninth to 24th will compete in a two-legged playoff. Those who lose that playoff will not drop into the Europa League.
History of the Champions League format
The new 189-game Champions League format looks totally different to the inaugural European Cup that launched with just 16 teams back in 1955. Back then, it was a straight knockout from the last-16 to the final, with teams playing home and away legs. Real Madrid beat Reims 4-3 in the final.
Aberdeen and Chelsea chose not to compete that season as the Football League argued a European tournament distracted from the domestic game. Hibs took the opportunity to compete and reached the semis, where they lost 3-0 on aggregate to Reims.
The next format change came two years later when the European Cup expanded to 24 teams and included a preliminary round to whittle the numbers to 16. The preliminary round got bigger and bigger until UEFA opted to expand to a 32-team knockout competition in 1966/67. Celtic beat FC Zurich, Nantes, Vojvodina, Dukla Prague and Inter Milan to win the European Cup that season.
From there, the format didn't really change until 1991/92 when a group stage was added to the competition. It was still known as the European Cup for one last season and featured two knockout rounds before a group stage consisting of eight teams, four in each group. The two group winners (Sampdoria and Barcelona met in the final.
A year later and the Champions League officially came to life, in the same format as the last European Cup. The format continued until 1994/95, when 16 teams competed in a four-group group stage, which then led to knockouts from the quarter-finals onwards. Two more groups were added in 1997/98, and in 1999/00 UEFA created two group stages that stretched until March.
That format didn't last long and UEFA finally settled on a 32-team, eight-group Champions League format that become the norm for the next two decades.
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