The most important questions and answers about the draw for the league phase of the Champions League in the new format.
Legend: It is already in the spotlight The Champions League trophy will also be a coveted subject on Thursday in Monaco. imago images/PanoramiC
What is it about?
The draw for the Champions League in its new format will take place in Monaco on Thursday from 6 p.m. The new “premier class” with 36 teams is UEFA’s answer to the so-called Super League, which some top clubs wanted to create.
Program note
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Follow the draw for the Champions League league phase on Thursday from 6:00 p.m. in the uncommented live stream in the SRF Sport app.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said they were “convinced that the selected format will achieve the right balance and guarantee the generation of solid revenues.”
What exactly is changing?
The field of participants will be expanded from 32 to 36 teams, the group phase will be replaced by a league phase. Instead of the previous 125 matches, there will be a total of 189.
How does the new league work?
Each club will initially have 8 matches on the schedule, but there will no longer be home and away matches. Each team will have 4 home and 4 away games.
To determine the various opponents, the teams are initially divided into 4 pots according to UEFA coefficient. Each team has 2 games against opponents from the respective pots. YB will be in pot 3.
How does the draw work?
The classic balls are no longer needed: in order to avoid a process that takes hours, software will now create the pairings. A club will still be drawn physically from its pot, but the 8 opponents will then be automatically randomly assigned to it.
There are 2 restrictions: A team is not assigned opponents from its own country. In addition, each club can only play against a maximum of 2 opponents from another country. The schedule with the match dates and kick-off times will be published on Saturday.
Who will advance to the knockout phase?
The results from the 8 match days are used to create an overall table of all 36 teams. The best 8 teams in the league move directly into the round of 16. The teams in places 9 to 16 will face the teams in places 17 to 24 in the playoffs.
Award for «CR7»
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Cristiano Ronaldo is receiving a special award. UEFA is honoring the Portuguese for his best performances in the Champions League. The 39-year-old striker will receive the award on Thursday in Monte Carlo during the CL draw, UEFA has announced.
Ronaldo, who now plays for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, is the record goalscorer with 140 goals in 183 Champions League matches, ahead of Lionel Messi and Robert Lewandowski. “CR7” has topped the list of goalscorers after a Champions League season 7 times, more often than any other player.
For teams ranked 25th and above, the European Cup season is over – so there is no more “relegation” to the Europa League. On the last league matchday on January 29, 2025, all 18 matches will be played simultaneously.
What happens after the round of 16?
From the round of 16 onwards, the knockout format will continue as before. The 8 teams that win the playoffs (11/12 and 18/19 February 2025) will then be drawn against the 8 directly qualified and seeded clubs on 21 February 2025.
The first-placed team in the league phase can meet the second-placed team in the final at the earliest. All knockout games – apart from the final – will continue to be played as home and away matches. The final will take place on May 31, 2025 in Munich’s Allianz Arena. The defending champions are Real Madrid.
How lucrative is the new format?
More games, more money: Instead of around 2 billion euros, UEFA is now paying out 2.467 billion euros per season to the clubs. The starting fee for each club is rising to 18.62 million euros (previously 15.64 million). In addition, there are bonuses in the league phase per win of 2.1 million and so-called place bonuses of 275,000 for the last-place team and up to almost 10 million for the first-place team in the league phase.
A maximum of over 112 million euros (previously 85 million) is possible from UEFA bonuses alone. Added to this are spectator revenue and income from the market pool.
