Good day everyone,
I hope you are all having a good day, welcome to CryptoGod-1's blog on all things sports. In this post I will be looking at the revamped format for the UEFA Champions League in this upcoming season. The group stage has been replaced with a league table consisting of 36 teams, who will each play 8 games.
League Table Stage
The previous group stage, which consisted of 32 teams divided in 8 groups of 4, has been replaced with an overall league table which will see 36 teams competing. Known as the 'Swiss' model, all 36 competing clubs will be ranked together. Instead of play three opponents home and away, now teams will face eight different sides. Four of their games will be at home, with four of the games away from home. No side will play each other twice.
All 36 sides will be divided in four seeding pots. Each of the teams in the competition will be drawn to play against two opponents from each of these pots, meaning they will have a variety of opposition during the matches. The results of each match will decide the overall ranking in the new league, with three points for a win and one for a draw still applying.
The league table games will be played on the following dates:
Matchday 1: 17–19 September 2024
Matchday 2: 1/2 October 2024
Matchday 3: 22/23 October 2024
Matchday 4: 5/6 November 2024
Matchday 5: 26/27 November 2024
Matchday 6: 10/11 December 2024
Matchday 7: 21/22 January 2025
Matchday 8: 29 January 2025
Knockout Stages
To qualify for the knockout rounds, teams need to finish within the top 24 places in the league table. The top 8 teams will automatically qualify for the last 16, while teams ranked 9th - 24th will face off in a playoff round with the winners also progressing into the last 16. The teams that finish between 9th and 16th will be seeded in the knockout phase play-off draw, meaning they will face a team placed 17th to 24th. Teams ranked 25-36 are eliminated from all competitions as there will no longer be teams dropping from the UEFA Champions League into the UEFA Europa League.
From there the same format as before will apply with the Quarter Finals, Semi Finals, and Final. This season the final will be played at Fußball Arena München on the 31st of May, 2025.
The draw for the league phase will be held on the 29th of August, 2024, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.
Qualified Teams
Currently there are 29 teams which have already qualified for this seasons Champions League. The final seven places will be determined by qualifiers. The teams qualified are the 25 teams who qualified automatically by virtue of their domestic league placing. The holders of the Champions League and the Europa League have also been given automatic qualification, although both already qualified through their league. This meant 'rebalancing' was done to add two more teams. Finally, two more places were given to the top performing league in Europe last season, with Germany and Italy winning those additional places. The qualified teams are:
England (4): Arsenal, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Man City
Spain (4): Atlético de Madrid, Barcelona, Girona, Real Madrid
Germany (5): Bayern, Dortmund, Leipzig, Leverkusen, Stuttgart
Italy (5): Atalanta, Bologna, Inter, Juventus, Milan
France (3): Brest, Monaco, Paris Saint-Germain
Netherlands (2): Feyenoord, PSV Eindhoven
Portugal (2): Benfica, Sporting CP
Belgium (1): Club Brugge
Scotland (1): Celtic
Austria (1): Sturm Graz
Ukraine (1): Shakhtar Donetsk
The remaining teams in qualifiers, which will be determined on Tuesday and Wednesday the 27th and 28th respectively, are:
Galatasaray - BSC Young Boys
RB Salzburg - Dynamo Kiev
Sparta Prague - Malmo FF
Qarabag FK - Dinamo Zagreb
Crvena Zvezda - Bodo/Glimt
SK Slovan Bratislava - FC Midtjylland
Slavia Prague - Lille
Personally I do not think the new format is any better than the previous format, and in many ways will just result in more games for teams but the same cohort progressing into the knockout rounds as per usual. Many will argue it will lead to more 'exciting' games between bigger teams earlier on, but I think it is unfair to rank teams against each other when then have not all had the chance to play a match against each other. While the group stage was not perfect, this new format seemingly is more about money grabbing by having more games to televise than making a fairer or more competitive competition.
Have a great day.
Peace. CryptoGod-1.
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