- UEFA have given the Champions League a major revamp this year
- Group stage replaced by a 36-team league
- Knockout stages have received a shake up too
The UEFA Champions League may be the most revered and desired club tournament in world football, but it’s new look for the 2024/25 season has not been well received by fans.
Historically, in the Champions League era, Europe’s premiere cup competition has seen multiple groups of four make up the tournament’s opening stages, before rounds of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and the final itself would take place. Between 1999-2003, there was that very weird and unecessary second group stage for reasons that, 20 years later, are still unclear. But nontheless, the group stage feeding into two-legged knockout ties was a tried and tested method for 30 years.
Then UEFA, in all their glory, decided to expand the competition by another four clubs and, instead of having groups, going for one massive group – a 36 team league table – in which each team plays eight times to determine who advances to the later stages.
But who does each club play their eight matches against out of the other 35 teams? How is this decided and how are 36 whittled down to 16 for the more traditional knockout phases to begin in earnest in 2025? Well, here’s a little explainer for you all. Yes, it is far more complex than it needs to be.
How does the Champions League 36-team league stage work?
As previously mentioned, each team of the 36 qualifiers will play eight games in the opening league stage (five of which have already been played). Four home, four away.
Teams that finish in the top eight will qualify automatically for the round of 16. Teams placed 9th-24th will then drop into a playoff round to determine the final eight clubs who will make up the final 16. Teams who finish 25th and lower (where PSG currently reside, with Real Madrid perilously close in 24th) are not only eliminated from the Champions League, but Europe altogether, with no teams dropping into the Europa League in the new, revamped format.
The eight teams who are victorious in the playoff round of 16 will then qualify for the actual round of 16, where they will each play one of the top eight teams from the initial league phase.
Who would qualify for the round of 16 automatically as it stands?
At the moment; Liverpool, Inter, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Atalanta, Bayer Leverkusen, Arsenal and Monaco would automatically qualify for the round of 16. Below them lie the likes of Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Benfica, Milan and, whisper it quietly, 15-time champions Real Madrid, who are just two points above the elimination zone.
When are the remaining rounds of the league stage being played?
The sixth round will take place across 10 and 11 of December, before the seventh kicks off across 21 and 22 January, before the opening stage concludes on 29 of the same month.
When and where does the 24/25 UEFA Champions League final take place?
The final for this year’s competition will take place at Bayern Munich’s Allianz Stadium in Germany on Saturday, 31 May, 2025.
