Afternoon guys.

There’s a new Champions League format next season.

Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool and Aston Villa will be amongst 36 clubs involved in the competition instead of playing three teams twice in a group, each club will now will face eight different opponents within a league instead of a group.

The league phase will run through to the end of January instead of December and there will be weeks which will be dedicated to the Champions League in the football calendar when no other European competitions are played. These matches will be played on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Clubs already qualified:

Atalanta
Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Aston Villa
Real Madrid, Barcelona, Girona, Atletico Madrid
Leverkusen, Stuttgart, Bayern, Leipzig
Inter Milan, AC Milan, Bologna, Juventus
Paris Saint-Germain, Monaco, Brest
PSV Eindhoven, Feyenoord
Sporting CP
Club Brugge
Celtic
Sturm Graz

European Performance Spots: Roma (Ita), Dortmund (Ger)
Champions League winner rebalancing: Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukr)
Europa League winner rebalancing: Benfica (Por)

The remaining six club spots will be decided from the qualifying rounds.

To determine the eight different opponents, teams will initially be ranked in four seeding pots. Each team will be drawn to play two opponents from each of these pots, playing one match against a team from each pot at home, and one away.

The top eight clubs in the league will qualify automatically for the knockout stages, while the clubs finishing in ninth to 24th place will compete in a two-legged play-off to secure a place in the last 16 of the competition.

Clubs who finish 25-36th are eliminated from all competitions.

Arsenal will be in Pot 2 according to reports which means we are very likely to have a tough fixture list. Champions League football is always tough anyway but there’s no reason we can’t beat a club from Pot 1.

The Metro predicts the Pots will look as following:

POT 1: Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Inter, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Barcelona

Pot 2: Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta, Juventus, Benfica, Arsenal, AC Milan, Club Brugge (need to qualify), Shakhtar Donetsk (need to qualify)

Pot 3: Feyenoord, Sporting CP, PSV, Celtic, (Lille, PAOK, Fenerbahce, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Young Boys all via qualification)

Pot 4: Monaco, Aston Villa, Bologna, Girona, Stuttgart, Sturm Graz, Stade Brestois, Galatasaray (need to qualify), Sparta Prague (need to qualify)

There you have it, the 2024/25 Champions League format. The new group/league stage anyway. The draw will take place on the 29th August.

Catch up in the comments.

 

 

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