UEFA Champions League New Format,

After months of speculation, the UEFA finally announced their new revamped format for the Champions League, which will be effective from the 2924-25 season. This will massively alter the current format and ensure greater participation for clubs across the continent. UEFA released a video on their official X(formerly Twitter) account that explains all the details about the new format. In the video, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said, “I am really pleased that it was a unanimous decision of the UEFA Executive Committee, with the European Club Association, European Leagues and national associations all agreeing with the proposal made. Another proof that European football is more united than ever.”

This format had been years in the making, but its implementation was only accelerated after the European Super League fiasco in April 2021. So, what’s the new format, and how it will affect the tournament?

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UEFA Champions League’s new format 

Under the new format, the number of teams will increase from 32 to 36. However, unlike the previous version, where teams were divided into eight groups of four, the new format will have four groups of nine teams.

Another feature of the current version was that teams in the group stage played against three of its other group members in a double-round-robin format. However, from the 2024-25 season, each team will play eight games, four home and four away. Also, all these eight games will be against eight different teams, allowing for more games between various teams.

The motto of this format is to ensure that there can be a lot of big games in the group stage itself, which will garner massive interest in the competition from the onset.

An exciting new era for European club football awaits 🤩

Here’s how the #UCL will look from 2024/25 👇 pic.twitter.com/mEffFOpX2O

— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) March 4, 2024

Another exciting aspect of this is that the eight games that any team will play will be against two teams from each group (one home and one away), something not possible in the current format. Despite the changed version, all the group stage games will be played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays like the current one.

After each team has played their games, the top eight teams will qualify for the round of 16. However, teams placed between ninth and 24th will play a double-legged tie against one other. These eight…