It's still the end of August, after the play-off round to determine the final tickets has ended, but the draw for the 2024-2025 Champions League season is likely to be more anticipated.
Because of the changes that the European Football Federation (UEFA) introduced, from quantity to format. From 32 clubs as in many past seasons, this year, the Champions League increased to 36 teams.
This year, 36 teams from 16 national federations entered the league stage.
Although only four teams were added, there would have been more complexity if the tournament had been organized using the old system (group stage followed by knockout stage). So UEFA changed the way it was organized, switching to the “Swiss model”.
There will be no group stage, instead there will be a “league”, but not all teams will play each other. Each team will have 8 matches in the league stage.
The method of drawing lots is a combination of craft and technology. Accordingly, the lottery tickets of 36 teams - divided into 4 seed groups, will be drawn manually and then the automatic software will randomly "spin" 8 different opponents.
The draw will also determine which matches will be played at home and which away.
Each team will play 2 opponents from each of the 4 seeding groups, 1 at home and 1 away. The rule is that teams will not face opponents from the same federation and can only be drawn with a maximum of 2 teams from the same other federation.
Teams will face up to 8 opponents instead of 3 like the old group stage, and with the competition format not being a home and away match but a random home and away match, the opportunities will be more open, leading to higher competition, aiming at what UEFA wants to "reduce procedural matches".
After eight rounds, the eight highest-ranked teams will advance directly to the round of 16. Teams ranked 9th to 24th will play a two-legged play-off round (teams ranked 9th to 16th are seeded for the draw, teams ranked 17th to 24th play at home first).
Teams ranked 25th to 36th are eliminated and will not be transferred to the 2024–25 UEFA Europa League.
The top seeded group has Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona, while group 2 has Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Arsenal, AC Milan, period. The beginning of the season can witness big matches, such as Real Madrid, Bayern, PSG, Barelona with Juve, Milan, Arsenal; Man City, Bayern, PSG, Dortmund, Inter with Atletico…
As in previous seasons, the group stage will end in December, after which teams will have about a two-month break before entering the knockout stages.
This season, the league stage will only end at the end of January 2025, so there will only be a short hiatus before the journey continues with the knockout rounds.
Match schedule frame
Round 1: September 17-19, 2024
Round 2: October 1-2, 2024
Round 3: October 22-23, 2024
Round 4: 5-6.11.2024
Round 5: 26-27.11.2024
Round 6: 10-11.12.2024
Round 7: 21-22.1.2025
Round 8: 29.1.2025
UEFA club tournaments including Champions League , Europa League, Conference League will be available on VTVcab infrastructure for 3 seasons, from 2024-2025 to 2026-2027.
