UEFA Champions League Revamp: Key Changes for the 2024/2025 Season (Video)

The UEFA Champions League is set to undergo significant changes for the 2024/2025 season, marking the beginning of a new era in European club football. The draw, scheduled to take place in Monaco on Thursday, will introduce a revamped format that expands the competition and reshapes the traditional group stage.

In this new format, the Champions League will grow from 32 to 36 teams, all competing in a single league rather than the previous group stage system. Each club will play eight matches against different opponents, selected through a seeding system. The top eight teams from this league phase will automatically advance to the last 16, while teams ranked 9th to 24th will enter a play-off round to determine the remaining eight spots in the knockout stages.

This expansion increases the number of matches significantly, from 96 to 144 in the league phase alone. UEFA believes these changes will foster greater competitive balance and deliver more high-stakes matchups throughout the tournament. However, the increased schedule has raised concerns about player fatigue, especially after disappointing performances in EURO 2024, which were attributed to overwork. Despite these concerns, UEFA has emphasized the financial upside, with the total prize money set to increase by approximately 25%, reaching nearly 2.5 billion euros.

Newcomers to the 2024/2025 Champions League include Girona from Spain and Bologna from Italy, who return to European competition after a 60-year absence. Additionally, French club Brest will make its European debut, capitalizing on France's additional qualification slot.

The draw process for the revamped Champions League will be more complex, combining traditional manual ball selection with advanced software to manage the increased intricacies of the new format.

Similarly, the Europa League and Conference League will also expand to 36 teams each, adopting a comparable format. The draws for these tournaments are set for Friday, completing UEFA’s comprehensive overhaul of its club competitions.

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A new era begins.

The best club competition in the world just got better.#UCLdraw || #UCL pic.twitter.com/XWcKlgrpLd — UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) August 29, 2024