Starting with the 2024/25 season, UEFA is introducing its own format of three European Cups. The official announcement was made by the continental forum on Monday.
UEFA competitions will move from the classic group format to the championship format
The Continental Forum has officially announced a new format for holding three interclub competitions.
“UEFA has clearly demonstrated that we are fully committed to respecting the fundamental values of sport and supporting the key principle of open competitions with classification based on sporting merit, which is fully in line with the values and European sporting model based on solidarity” – Oleksandr Ceferin, President of UEFA.
The main innovation is that the classic groups of 4 teams will disappear in favor of a single championship group of 36 teams.
Thus, the competition will start with 36 teams instead of 32, as now. They will be divided into 4 pots of 9 teams, each club will have 8 different opponents.
The first pot will contain the winner of this season’s Champions League and the 8 teams with the best UEFA coefficient, based on the coefficient, the other 3 pots will also be formed.
The top 8 places will qualify for the round of 16, and places 9 to 24 will compete in a playoff for the remaining places. The teams that occupy 25-36 places will complete their European journey.
Places 9-16 will be seeded in the draw and will receive home field advantage in the second leg of the playoffs. Therefore, the team that wins the competition will have to play a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 17 matches, compared to the 13 they currently play.
The same format will apply in the Europa League, while the UEFA Europa Conference League will change its name to the UEFA Conference League, with only 6 matches played against 6 different opponents in the first phase. 36 teams will take part in both competitions.
Champions League schedule, season 2024/25 – UEFA assessment
Stage 1: September 17-19, 2024
Stage 2: October 1-2, 2024
Stage 3: October 22-23, 2024
4th stage: November 5-6, 2024
Stage 5: November 26-27, 2024
6th stage: December 10-11, 2024
7th stage: January 21-22, 2025
Stage 8: January 29, 2025
Play-offs (round robin): February 11-12, 2025
Play-offs (second leg): February 18-19, 2025
Optimi (tour): March 4-5, 2025
Optimi (return): March 11-12, 2025
Quarters (round): April 8-9, 2025
Quarters (return): April 15-16, 2025
Semi-finals (round robin): April 29-30, 2025
Semi-finals (second leg matches): May 6-7, 2025
Final: May 31, 2025 (Allianz Arena – Munich.
Source: Hot News
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