UEFA Champions League: New Format Explained

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After 21 years, Europe's premier club competition is undergoing a dramatic restructuring in the 2024-25 season.

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Now, the UEFA Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League will all have 36 participating teams.

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But instead of eight groups of four, all the teams will be part of one big league.

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In the Champions League and Europa League, they will be divided into four seeded pots, consisting nine teams each.

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Each team will be manually drawn out of the pot, and will face two teams from each pot during the group stage.

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However, the actual draw and opponent selection will be done by an artifical intelligence software.

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Each team will play one game against the eight opponents during the initial phase.

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- The top 8 teams will go directly to the Round of 16.
- Teams finishing 9th to 24th will face each other in knockout playoffs to decide the rest of the Round of 16.

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From then on, it's as you were.

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There is a slight difference in the Conference League, where the teams will be drawn from six pots consisting six teams each.

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The UEFA Champions League draw takes place on August 29, 2024.

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