BREAKING NEWS: UEFA announces new competitions format starting 2024/25
UEFA unveiled a comprehensive revamp of the Champions League format, along with its affiliated tournaments—the Europa League and the Conference League—on Tuesday, March 12th, prior to implementing these changes for the 2024/25 season.
The most significant alteration involves expanding the tournament to accommodate 36 teams competing in a single league format, departing from the previous group stage setup where clubs were divided into eight groups of four teams, a format that had been in place for the recent seasons.
This restructuring introduces a new concept of a unified “Champions League match week” scheduled in September, spanning Tuesday through Thursday, although the exact dates are yet to be finalized.
Under the new arrangement, each participating team will engage in eight matches against eight different opponents—split evenly between home and away fixtures—paired with teams from four seeding pots, organized based on their UEFA coefficients.
To maintain competitive balance, teams from the same national association will be kept apart during the league phase, except for leagues boasting four or more clubs, like the Premier League, where exceptions might allow for domestic clashes.
Regarding the English top-flight, these changes could potentially lead to as many as seven Premier League teams participating in the Champions League, with a total of 11 English clubs involved in European competitions annually, spanning the UCL, Europa League, and Conference League.
The top eight teams from the league phase will automatically progress to the knockout stages, which will adopt a playoff format based on seeding, akin to structures seen in many American professional sports leagues, to determine matchups.
UEFA has also confirmed that all matches on the final day of the league phase will kick off simultaneously to uphold the integrity of the competition.
Furthermore, UEFA has dismissed the proposal put forward by Newcastle’s owner, Amanda Staveley, who expressed a desire for Saudi teams to partake in the Champions League, stating that such inclusion is not on the agenda presently. Additionally, UEFA clarified that the Champions League final will remain within Europe for the foreseeable future.