From the 2024-2025 season, the UEFA Champions League will have a different format. In this article, Futballnews has highlighted some of the changes that UEFA announced recently.
From the 2024-2025 season, the UEFA Champions League group stage will be replaced by a 36-team league table format.
This format is expected to give more opportunities to clubs across Europe to participate in the most prestigious club competition in the world.
Aside from that, the new format will give football fans across the world the opportunity of watching more football games. The new format will give birth to 100 additional games.
In the same vein, the UEFA Europa League and the Europa Conference League will follow the same tournament format.
Recall that the UEFA Champions League is usually comprises of 32 teams. But based on the new arrangement, the 2024-2025 UEFA Champions League will have 36 teams.
Hence, in the new arrangement, all the clubs in the tournament will play 10 games each in the first phase.
Each club will play five home games and five away games in the first phase of the tournament.
At the end of the group stage which will be in a league format, the top eight clubs in the first phase will automatically qualify for the next round of the tournament (the knockout stage).
“This gives the opportunity for clubs to test themselves against a wider range of opponents – and also raises the prospect of fans seeing the top teams go head to head more often earlier in the competition,” reads a statement from UEFA.
Details about the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League 2024-2025 season:
UEFA has also confirmed a couple of changes in the UEFA Champions League knock-out stage of the tournament for the 2024-2025 season.
During the season’s campaign, the club that finish from 9th to 24th spots in the first phase will play a two-legged play-off. Winners of the play-off will secure a spot in the last 16 stage of the tournament.
From the 16 stage of the tournament, the clubs involved will continue to play two-legged games until the final stage of the tournament.
“Those who finished between ninth and 16th will be seeded in the playoff draw, meaning they will face a team placed 17th to 24th – with home advantage in the second-leg match,” said UEFA.
