The 2024/25 Champions League campaign is set to be wildly different to anything that has come before.
In an attempt to spruce up the early rounds of Europe’s premier continental competition, UEFA have overhauled the group stage, with next season’s Champions League set to be the largest ever.
With four extra teams in the competition, the Premier League could see five clubs make it into the tournament, rather than the usual four. However, it’s no guarantee just yet.
Let’s take a closer look at the Champions League’s new format and how five English top-flight clubs can qualify in 2024/25.
This season will be the last in which supporters can enjoy the traditional group stage phase that the Champions League has implemented uninterrupted since 2003. There will no longer be eight groups of four teams, with the competition expanded to include 36 clubs from 2024/25 onwards.
Instead of a group stage, all 36 sides will be placed into a league system. Within that league, each club will play eight matches – four home and four away – against eight different teams.
All 36 teams will be seeded based on UEFA rankings and sorted into four separate pots, with each club facing two other teams from each pot – one home and one away. So, hypothetically, if a team is in pot one, they will play two games against two different teams from pot one, two, three and four in a total of eight games in the league phase.
According to UEFA‘s official website: “This gives the opportunity for clubs to test themselves against a wider range of opponents and raises the prospect for fans of seeing the top teams go head to head more often and earlier in the competition. It will also result in more competitive matches for every club across the board.”
This is where things get even more complicated. In the 2024/25 campaign, due to there being four more teams in the competition, there will be different methods to qualify for the knockout phase of the Champions League.
With a maximum of 24 points to play for, the top eight teams in the league will automatically qualify for the last 16. However, teams placed ninth to 24th will enter a two-legged play-off, with the winners of each tie progressing to the next round.
Teams placed ninth to 16th will be drawn against teams placed 17th to 24th. The eight winners of each tie will then face the eight automatic qualifiers from the league phase in the last 16.
From the last 16 onwards,…
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