Champions League New Format for 2024/25 season

From the group stages to the knockout rounds, witness the transformation of the Champions League format. 

We preview everything you need to know below.

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The History of the Champions League 

The Champions League as we know it is a rebrand of the European Champion Clubs’ Cup which was founded in 1955. It was initially a straight knockout tournament open only to the champions of Europe’s domestic leagues, with its winner taking home the trophy. As of 1992 until this season, the final season of the current format, 32 teams from across Europe were put into eight groups and play in a double round-robin group stage.

Following that, the top two teams from each group proceed to the round of 16 which is the first knockout stage, all the way until the final. Should you win the Champions League, you automatically qualified for the group stage for the competition the following year.

The Champions League new format for 2024/25

The 2024/25 edition of the UEFA Champions League will follow a brand-new format which awards sporting merit in order to defend the integrity of the competition and promote the key principles of open competitions.

The major change in the reforms announced by UEFA is the shift from the 32-team group stage to a more inclusive ‘League Phase’ which will offer the opportunity to four more teams that have performed the best in domestic competitions to compete against the best clubs in Europe. 36 clubs will now participate in a single league competition in which all competing clubs are ranked together.

League Phase

Under the new format the teams will play eight matches in the new league phase, no longer playing the same three opponents twice both home and away. Instead, they will, play four matches at home and the other four away. To determine who plays who in this phase, the teams will be initially ranked into four seeding pots and then drawn to play two opponents from each of these pots, playing one match against a team from each pot at home, and one away.

The main selling point of this new format is that is gives opportunities to clubs to test themselves against a wider range of opponents and gives the fans the prospect of seeing the top teams go head-to-head more often and earlier in the competition. Given that teams only play each other once, the games should be more competitive as a one-off event.

Knockout Stage

The results of each match will decide the overall ranking in the new league, with three points for a win, one for a draw, and zero for a loss still applying. The top eight sides from the league will automatically qualify for the round of 16, with the final eight spots being battled out by the teams that finish 9th to 24th. They will compete in a two-legged knockout tie to secure their path to the last 16 of the competition.

To consolidate the synergy between the league and knockout phases, the pairings of the latter will also be determined partly by the league phase rankings, with a draw which likewise determines and pans out the route for teams to reach the final.

From the round of 16 onwards, the Champions League will follow the existing format, with mid-week fixtures as to preserve the domestic calendar games across Europe.

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