UEFA Champions League format approved for the 2024-2025 season | Champions League

the new Champions LeagueFrom the 2024-2025 season it will have an initial 8-game league stage and will not apply the club coefficient criterion to allocate two of the four additional places for the competition, by increasing the participating teams from 32 to 36.

Both measures have been approved by the Executive Committee of the People’s Republic of China UEFA This Tuesday’s meeting in Vienna, “after extensive consultations with the parties involved”, approved the final formula and the list of access to European club competitions from the 2024/25 season, after its decision to present the so-called “Swiss”. system” on April 19, 2021 for the new Champions League.

The main amendments approved on Tuesday refer to the reduction from 10 to 8 matches in the Champions League stage and a change in the criteria for allocating two of the four additional places, eliminating access based on the coefficient of clubs, such as leagues. Fans have asked.

This underscores UEFA’s strong commitment to the principle of open competitions and sporting merit, while recognizing the need to protect domestic leagues.

The European Football Association announced that the eight matches of the group stage will be held in the scheduled ten European weeks, the European Champions League, the European League and the Conference League. You will enjoy an exclusive week in the calendar.

The four additional slots created through the increase from 32 to 36 teams will be allocated as follows:
A place will be awarded to the club that finished third in the UEFA Championship with fifth place in the UEFA National League classification.
A place will be awarded to a National Champion, increasing from four to five the number of clubs that qualify through the so-called “Road of Champions”.
The last two places will go to the associations with the best collective performance of their clubs in the previous season (the total number of points obtained divided by the number of participating clubs).

These two associations will get a place for the highest-ranked club in the domestic league behind the centers of the European Champions League. For example, at the end of the current season, the two associations that add a club to the Champions League, based on the collective performance of their clubs, will be England and Holland.

The UEFA Executive Committee has once again confirmed that all matches leading up to the final will continue on weekdays, recognizing the importance of the schedule of national matches across Europe. He indicated that by increasing the total number of teams to 36, the biggest change would be the transformation of the traditional group stage into a single league stage that includes all participating teams.

Each team will guarantee a minimum of 8 matches in the league stages against 8 different opponents (four at home and four away) instead of the previous six matches against three teams, played at home and away.

The top eight teams in the league will automatically qualify for the knockout stage, while the teams in the ninth and twenty-fourth places will play a home and away match to secure passage to the round of 16 of the competition. Similar format changes will also apply to the European League (8 matches in the league stage) and the Conference League (6 matches in the league stage). The two teams will also have 36 teams in the league stage.

EFE