Mayra Madrigal
The UEFA Champions League will have a new format as of 2024, after the governing body’s Executive Committee approved it.
This Tuesday, May 10, it was announced that, for the 2024-25 season, the UEFA Champions League will rise from 32 teams to 36, and it will also be in league format.
In this new format of the UEFA Champions League, each of the qualified teams will play eight league matches: four at home and four away. After that, the top eight teams in the league will advance directly to the knockout stage, while the teams ranked #9 to #24 will compete in a two-legged playoff to advance to the round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League.
After the news broke, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said he believes the format will provide balance and make the competition more competitive:
“We are convinced that the format chosen strikes the right balance and that it will improve the competitive balance and generate solid revenues that can be distributed to clubs, leagues and into grassroots football across our continent.”
The idea of Ceferin and UEFA itself, is that once these changes are implemented, everyone will stop thinking about the famous Super League.
It should be recalled that 12 of Europe’s biggest clubs had signed up to participate in the Super League last year. In the end, the plan failed to materialize, and business as usual resumed, despite the protests of fans, players, and directors.
How will the four new places in the UEFA Champions League be distributed?
There were 32 teams and by 2024 there will be 36, so there are four extra places, which will be distributed as follows:
One place will go to the club ranked third in the championship of the association in fifth position in the UEFA national association ranking. Another place will be available for a national champion, expanding the number of clubs that qualify through the “Champions’ Path” from four to five.
The last two places will go to the associations with the best collective performance of their clubs in the previous season, by adding the total points and dividing that by the number of participating teams.
There may be many doubts at this time, but we hope that by the time this format is implemented in 2024 they will be cleared up.
