The UEFA Champions League 2024-25 returns next month. And most importantly the draw will feature a new format. The popular Swiss Model will be making its debut this season. The total number of teams have increased from 32 to 36 this time. One of the major changes this time would be the league phase and not the group phase that has been in use for the last years.
This time there won’t be 8 groups which will consist of 4 clubs from different leagues and nations. In fact this time, in the Swiss format, it is not mandatory for teams to play against all other opponents of the so called group.
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UEFA Champions League draw rules
This time with 4 teams addition up, each team will play a total of 8 matches in the league stage. In the previous case it was 6 group stage matches for each team. This also sees that a team won’t be facing a particular opponent twice in home and away legs. In fact, the 8 league matches will feature 8 different opponents.
From the starting game till the final, a total of 189 matches would take place. This a substantial rise in number of matches from the previous setup which had 125 matches.
The top 8 placed teams in the league format directly advances to Round of 16. On the other hand, the teams placed from 9th to 24th will take part in a two-legged play off rounds to make it to the next phase. In the Round of 16, the matches will take place as per seeds. This will enable that teams finishing on top 2 in league phase don’t meet until the final.
How will the UEFA Champions League draw take place?
This season the draw will take place from 9 pots as there will be 36 teams. But Champions League title defenders, i.e Real Madrid would be the first team to be drawn. Another change would be the way in which the draw would take place. Until last season, the draw was manual, but from this season onwards it will be fully automated.
The 36 teams however would be manually drawn by a representative in the stage. When a team is drawn, a button would be pressed and the computer would formulate and bring out the 8 different opponents which the team would face in the tournament.
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