The new format of the UEFA Champions League 2024-25: teams, pots and playoffs

The 2024-25 UEFA Champions League is already on the horizon. Real Madrid was crowned at Wembley with an Oregon XV against Borussia Dortmund and in a few weeks the road to the Allianz Arena final in Munich begins in a completely innovative version in which there are already 29 qualified teams.

The format of the group stage and the knockout stage created in the 2003-04 season is history. The new Champions League will move from 32 to 36 participants who will compete in a single league in which everyone will compete in a common classification. Eight opponents will be measured, four at home and four away, which will be determined by the four pots in which the draw will be divided (two-two-two-two).

The top eight of this league will get straight into the eighth and from the ninth to the twenty-fourth there will be a round-robin ‘playoff’ to determine who goes to the crossings. From 25 they will be outside Europe. A new era in which many classics and many debutants have already been recorded, arranged in four pots according to the UEFA coefficient.

The 1st It is complete with Manchester City, Bayern, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Inter, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Barcelona.

In 2 already Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid , Atalanta, Juventus, Benfica, Arsenal, Brugge and Shakhtar It remains to be determined whether Milan will join them.

In the third installment there are Feyenoord, Sporting CP and PSV Eindhoven. And as of Ah, there are many novelties. He confirmed his place in the fourth Sturm Graz and Brest This was the big reveal of the French Ligue 1. Celtic, Monaco, Aston Villa , Bologna , Girona and Stuttgart They are nested between 3 and 4. And we still have to put the teams that will arrive from the previous ones that will play this summer (five from the Champions League path and two from the best teams of their championships).

How will the previous one be?

On July 9, the playoffs will begin with the preliminary round, which has already qualified 28 teams that won the league championships in low passes.

From now on they will commit and advance in the qualifying rounds of the first round. In the second, another 14 teams are waiting for the winners of the first round (10 league champions and four non-champions).

Six teams will enter the scene in the third round, the playoffs have already separated the league champions and are ranked by their position in domestic competitions that have not sung alleren

And in the last round, four clubs that were champions of their leagues are waiting for another determination Seven places will complete the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League. Five through the path of champions and two through the path of the best combinations of their championships that did not sing alerne.

There are already 29 classified… But there is still a lot to decide on the road to manych.