Attention will shift to Thursday’s Champions League draw following the completion of the midweek qualifiers.
In some ways, nothing changes. Real Madrid enter the competition as reigning champions, Manchester City will be widely dubbed as the toughest competitors for Los Blancos’ crown, and fans of Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona will be hoping it doesn’t end in cataclysmic fashion once again.
But plenty of things look very different this season. The longstanding and familiar group stage has been scrapped, with a gargantuan “league phase” taking its place, and the draw procedure leans heavily on conspiracy theorist-baiting technology.
Here’s what you need to know as we head into the first Champions League campaign under the revamped 36-team format.
What is the new format this season?
After 21 seasons, the Champions League no longer comprises 32 clubs initially split into eight groups of four. Instead, UEFA is switching to a “Swiss format” that allows four more teams to enter the competition in a league phase. The league phase helps lift the total number of Champions League matches per campaign to 189, an increase of 64 matches from last season.
All 36 clubs are thrown into a single league table and will face two teams apiece from the draw’s four seeding pots, resulting in a total of eight league matches each. They won’t play the same team twice; there’s one home meeting with a team from each pot and one away trip against a different team from each pot.
“This gives the opportunity for clubs to test themselves against a wider range of opponents and raises the prospect for fans of seeing the top teams go head to head more often and earlier in the competition,” UEFA explains.
The top eight finishers automatically go to the round of 16. The bottom eight are eliminated, with no consolation prize of Europa League or Conference League football to ease their disappointment. The last-16 field will be rounded out by the teams finishing in 9th to 24th place; the clubs positioned 9th to 16th are drawn in a two-legged playoff against a team that finished the league phase placed 17th to 24th. This new round has been dubbed the knockout phase playoffs. The winners advance to the round of 16, joining the aforementioned top eight seeds, while the losers’ European journey is over.
From that point on, the standard two-legged matchups we’ve grown accustomed to will continue to be used through the semifinals.
The matchdays up until the final will still be held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with the exception of the opening matchday and the final round of league phase fixtures. The specific dates are later in this article.
How will the computerized draw work?
The new format would require almost 1,000 balls for UEFA to continue with a fully manual draw. No one wants that. So, UEFA is leaning on a designated automated software to determine each team’s opponents.
Yes, the robots are taking over.
The 36 teams are split evenly between four pots determined by their individual club coefficient (with the exception of Real Madrid, who have fewer coefficient points than Manchester City and Bayern Munich but are automatically the top seed as the title holders).
The draw starts with plucking out balls that represent the nine teams in Pot 1. Once a Pot 1 team is drawn, the computer then immediately chooses two random opponents from each of the four pots (including Pot 1) while ensuring clubs don’t face two or more opponents hailing from the same country or a team from its own country.
Those rules mean the German trio in Pot 1 – Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, and RB Leipzig – will each face two of the remaining top seeds: Real Madrid, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Inter Milan, and Barcelona.
AE Live, appointed last year as UEFA’s official partner for all draws, developed the software that will be used to conduct Thursday’s event. Ernst & Young, an external auditor that reviewed the new draw format to ensure its randomness, will also be on site Thursday to “provide the review and control of the manual and digital draw operations,” UEFA said.
When is the draw?
The league phase draw will take place at 12 p.m. ET on Thursday at the Grimaldi Forum in the Monte Carlo area of Monaco.
The match dates and kickoff times will be confirmed Saturday once UEFA avoids calendar clashes with Europa League and Conference League teams who share cities with Champions League outfits.
Which teams have qualified?
Pot 1
Pot 2
Pot 3
- 🇳🇱 Feyenoord
- 🇵🇹 Sporting CP
- 🇳🇱 PSV Eindhoven
- 🇭🇷 Dinamo Zagreb
- 🏴 Celtic
- 🇦🇹 Red Bull Salzburg
- 🇨🇭 Young Boys
Pot 4
Teams fighting for final three spots
The qualifying playoffs conclude today with the following 3 p.m. ET matches:
- 🇩🇰 Midtjylland vs. Slovan Bratislava 🇸🇰
- 🇳🇴 Bodo/Glimt vs. Crvena Zvezda 🇷🇸
- 🇫🇷 Lille vs. Slavia Prague 🇨🇿
When are the matches being played?
League phase
Matchday 1: Sept. 17–19, 2024
Matchday 2: Oct. 1-2, 2024
Matchday 3: Oct. 22-23, 2024
Matchday 4: Nov. 5-6, 2024
Matchday 5: Nov. 26-27, 2024
Matchday 6: Dec. 10-11, 2024
Matchday 7: Jan. 21-22, 2025
Matchday 8: Jan. 29, 2025
Knockout phase
Knockout phase playoffs: Feb. 11-12 and 18-19, 2025
Round of 16: March 4-5 and 11-12, 2025
Quarterfinals: April 8-9 and 15-16, 2025
Semifinals: April 29-30 and May 6-7, 2025
Final: May 31, 2025
Key draw dates
Knockout round playoff draw: Jan. 31, 2025
Round of 16, quarterfinal, semifinal, and final draw: Feb. 21, 2025
Where is the final?
The Allianz Arena, home to Bayern Munich, will host the final on the last day of May 2025. The stadium staged the 2012 Champions League final – a penalty shootout victory for Chelsea over Bayern – and was also a venue for the 2006 World Cup, Euro 2020, and Euro 2024.
