EXPLAINED: Guide To Champions League 2024-25 New Format

Since its inception as the European Champion Clubs’ Cup in 1955, UEFA Champions League has continuously evolved and adapted to keep pace with wider changes in the game.

To ensure an interesting and exciting experience, the new Champions League 2024-25 format promises to deliver the best for clubs, players and fans. 

Champions League 2024-25: New Format

The new Champions League format will include 36 clubs who will be playing for the coveted football trophy. Earlier, 32 clubs participated in the format which were divided into eight groups of four. 

Under the new format, teams will play eight matches each in the league phase (formerly group stage). They will no longer be playing three opponents twice – home and away – but will instead face eight different teams, playing half of those matches at home and half of them away.

To determine the eight different opponents, the teams will initially be ranked in four seeding pots. Each team will then be drawn to play two opponents from each of these pots. They will play one match against a team from each pot at home, and one away.

Pot 1

Manchester City

Bayern

Real Madrid

PSG

Liverpool

Inter

Borussia Dortmund

RB Leipzig

Barcelona

Pot 2

Bayer Leverkusen

Atletico Madrid

Atalanta

Juventus

Benfica

Arsenal

Brugge

AC Milan

Shakhtar

Pot 3

Feyenoord

Sporting CP

PSV

Celtic

RB Salzburg

Young Boys

Team to qualify

Team to qualify

Team to qualify

Pot 4

Monaco

Aston Villa

Bologna

Girona

Stuttgart

Sturm Graz

Brest

Sparta Prague

Team to qualify

Round of 16

The top eight teams in the league stage will qualify automatically for the round of 16.  The teams finishing in 9th to 24th place will compete in a two-legged knock-out phase play-off to book a place in the last 16 of the tournament. Teams that finish 25th or lower will be eliminated, with no access to the UEFA Europa League.

the teams that finish between 9th and 16th will be seeded in the knockout phase play-off draw, meaning they will face a team placed 17th to 24th. The eight clubs which prevail in the knockout phase play-offs will then progress to the round of 16, where they will each face one of the top-eight finishers, who will be seeded in the round of 16.

From the round of 16 onwards, the competition will continue to follow its existing format of knockout rounds leading to the final staged at a neutral venue selected by UEFA.

UEFA Champions League 2024-25 will start from 17 September 2024. The final will be held at Allianz Arena, the home turf of German giant Bayern Munich 31 May 2025. 

Schedule for 2024–25 UEFA Champions League

Phase	Round	Draw date	First leg	Second leg
Qualifying	First qualifying round	18 June 2024	9–10 July 2024	16–17 July 2024
	Second qualifying round	19 June 2024	23–24 July 2024	30–31 July 2024
	Third qualifying round	22 July 2024	6–7 August 2024	13 August 2024
Play-offs	Play-off round	5 August 2024	20–21 August 2024	27–28 August 2024
League phase	Matchday 1	29 August 2024	17–19 September 2024
	Matchday 2		1–2 October 2024
	Matchday 3		22–23 October 2024
	Matchday 4		5–6 November 2024
	Matchday 5		26–27 November 2024
	Matchday 6		10–11 December 2024
	Matchday 7		21–22 January 2025
	Matchday 8		29 January 2025
Knockout phase	Knockout phase play-offs	31 January 2025	11–12 February 2025	18–19 February 2025
	Round of 16	21 February 2025	4–5 March 2025	11–12 March 2025
	Quarter-finals		8–9 April 2025	15–16 April 2025
	Semi-finals		29–30 April 2025	6–7 May 2025
	Final		31 May 2025 at Allianz Arena, Munich

Also Read: Football Winners In The History Of Olympics

Matchdays

In the new Champions League format, the first matchday will be played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (formerly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays). The last matchday will have 18 simultaneous matches. The remaining matchdays will be held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

In the first phase of matches, teams from the same country cannot face each other unless forced to do so by the competition and the draw. In this case, there can only be one match between teams from the same country.  It might affect federations such as the Spanish, Germans, English, Italian or with four or more participating clubs.