UEFA Champions League - 36-team format to start from season 25 in 2024
The fans were all lost in the chaos, news, and the ground-breaking changes in the Super League this week. However, we missed out a lot on UEFA Champions League as the authorities have announced significant changes to the well-like competition. The league has shifted to a new format which will be effective immediately in the 25th season, starting from 2024.
The new format welcomes more teams and games but the format is a little tricky for the fans to understand.
Here is everything you need to know about the new format of UEFA Champion’s 25th season:
What will be different now?
The UEFA Champions League has made the biggest change, right off the bat. The 32-team format which was followed is long gone. As of now, the UCL 8 groups of 4 teams each. The competition in the league is likely to shift to one single table.
The table will look exactly like any other table in the league- featuring 26 teams rather than the 20 teams that we normally in the Premier League or as you might call it, the La Liga.
The summary of the change in the format of the UEFA Champions League is:
No more repeat matches during the initial stages will be allowed. Instead, the clubs will take 10 different teams as opponents with half of the games on road and the other half of the games at home.
The 4 extra spots- where will they go?
The first slot will go to the club ranked fifth in the UEFA’s association rankings. Moreover, it will be ranked third in the association’s table.
For instance, the fifth-ranked team from the UEFA Champion’s League will be ranked the third team and it would be qualified to compete in the upcoming season. As of now, this position will be given to AS Monaco as they are in the third position in the Premier League 1.
The expansion of the champions path from 4 clubs to 5 clubs will allow giving the second spot to a domestic champion.
Just like that, the third and fourth spots will be granted to two clubs with the highest coefficients. However, they should not be from the teams that were qualified for the UCL League’s stage automatically. These two clubs will only be granted the two extra spots if they have qualified for the Europa Conference League or Europa League.
In general, it means that these extra spots will go to the best performing teams who did not make it to the UCL league but were qualified for Europa League. It is time for them to get pumped for a league phase.
Will there be a knockout stage?
Yes, pretty much. Nothing has changed about the knockout stage as it will remain as it was- 16 competitive teams battling out. However, how will the knockout stage happen is different than what we were used to seeing on screens.
The 8 top-performing teams will go last in the 16 teams but teams from 9 to 24 will have to go through a play-off round. All the teams finishing on 25th and below will be out of the European competition.
Why was the format changed in the UEFA Champions League?
The authorities say that the format change is to provide more opportunities to the top European teams while improving the importance and anticipation of each match.