UEFA Champions League has evolved over the years and 2024-25 calendar season will be the first time the tournament will undergo a new change, the first alteration to the format of the competition since the 2003-04 season when the round of sixteen phase was introduced.
The structure of the UEFA Champions League – UCL – will now incorporate the number of 36 teams as compared to the 32 teams in the last season. The group stage has now been substituted with a league format. Each team is now required to play eight matches against eight different opponents. It replaces the earlier system of three opponent invasive contests and six group matches.
The football clubs will now play four out the next five games on their home turf and the other within their walls, and based on the results, their position in the average league table will be defined when the team carries out a full-circle fixture.
In this tournament, the top eight teams including eight of thirty-six advance automatically into the round of 16 including the spherical of 16 while teams ranked toward nineteenth place to twenty-four place compete in a O-two round playoff. The eight round sixteen slots will be filled by the winners of these play-offs. Those who ranked 25 and below will be removed from the competition.
In the knockout play offs, clubs ranked between position nine to sixteen may be seeded to play against the unseeded teams ranked between position seventeen to twenty four.
Seeding system continues with the […], who will be seeded in the round of sixteen. This is the knock out section wherein teams that finish from position first to eight in the league will be seeded and play the winners of the knockout phase play offs who will not be seeded.
In the round of 16 single elimination matches (´knockout games´) and playoffs teams who finished ranked and placed 6th-8th must play second leg at home round when it is the reverse party of the playoff game where it is the first and not the second leg.
The greater a task group attains in the league phase, the better its seeding on the picture knockout stage, which affects the crew’s path towards the finals. The round of 16 can also be seen using the last eight, semi finals and final.
How teams qualify for UEFA Champions League under new format
Out of the 36 teams, twenty-five teams have been qualifying for the Champions League consistently through the domestic leagues. The first four participating associations which ranked four in step with the UEFA coefficient are awarded four spots each.
Now for the coming season of the UEFA Super Cup 2024-25, one of those top four is England, Spain, Germany, and Italy.
The 5th and 6th ranked needs to enhance the men’s division one basketball program such as through recruitment were awarded 3 and two spots respectively. The association ranked 7th to 10th has one home champion to every ranking by the association.
According to UCL 2024-25 rankings, fnac and nw are fifth and sixth respectively. Portugal, Belgium, Scotland and Austria are 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th respectively in the above.
Two spots have been left for winners of European Champions Cup and Europa cup. Further rebalancing will be needed if either or both title holders also qualify in the domestic league.
For the 2024-25 season’s champions league at Spain’s Real Madrid and Italy’s Atalanta were able to obtain most qualification by virtue of their respective league standings.
This is why the Ukrainian Premier League champions Shakhtar Donetsk were able to fill the position allocated to UCL holders as they were the highest-ranked second-tier club from associations 11–55. Elsewhere, leagues ranked 1-10 guaranteed automatic qualification to the league stage.
Simultaneously, Benfica of Portugal has the opportunity to assume the position reserved for the Europa league on the grounds that this is the team with the best participating in the UCL.
In addition, two seats were qualified for the two teams based on their European performances. The European Performance Spots go to member associations whose clubs have achieved the best combined results in the previous UEFA men’s club competitions season.
Italy’s Bologna and German Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund were able to qualify for the UCL 2024-25 based on these criteria.
The final positions are filled with the victories earned in qualification rounds of the champions path and league path. The champions path consists of domestic winners whilst the league path includes other national teams for second and third or fourth places. Each tie in these rounds is conducted over two games away and at home.
Five teams – Young Boys (Switzerland), Dinamo Zagreb (Croatia), Slovan Bratislava (Slovakia), SPARTA PRAHA (Czech Republic), and Great Red Star from Belgrade– qualified via the champions path for UCL 2024-25. However, Lille (France) and Salzburg (Austria) progressed through the league path.