The UEFA Champions League will undergo a facelift ahead of the 2024/25 European season. The changes are designed to eliminate many games that may not mean anything and increase competition.
The new format has been named the “Swiss” system and will have 36 teams in its initial group stage, a four-team increase, which will participate in a league stage.
The 36 clubs will be split into four groups of nine and every club will face two teams from all the pots. After eight matches, the top eight teams will go to the round of 16, while spots 9-24 will compete in a play-off round to fill out the remaining teams. While the losers of the play-off games go to the Europa League.
What happens after the league round of the UCL?
After the play-off and league round teams are set, the knockout rounds will proceed as the current format does.
To simplify:
- New 36-team “league” competition ranked by a single table.
- 8 games played against two teams from four different pots.
- The top eight teams ranked as a whole advance to round of 16.
- Positions nine to 24 go into a two-legged play-off to reach the round of 16.
- Winners of play-offs continue in the UCL round of 16 while the losers go to the Europa League.
- Positions 25 to 36 are eliminated automatically.
- Knockout rounds remain the same.