New format of the Champions League: more teams, more excitement!

New format of the Champions League: more teams, more excitement!

The UEFA Champions League 2024/25 will go into history as a 70th season of prestigious competition. It represents the 33rd season since the renaming of the "European Cup of the national champions". According to

The coming season brings a fundamental redesign of the mode. The number of participants is increased from 32 to 36 teams, which leads to a uniform leagueapse in which each team has to play a total of eight games; Four at home and four away. The best eight teams in the league qualification move directly into the round of 16. For the teams that end in places 9 to 24, the remaining places remains in a play-off round.

The slots for the new season are distributed with various mechanisms. As ESPN are divided into four pots with nine teams each. Pot 1 houses the title bearers of the Champions League and the eight clubs with the best coefficients. Teams from the same league are usually not drawn against each other, unless there are four or more clubs from the same league in the competition.

The newly implemented leagueapse ends in January 2025, a change that brings a compressed season and thus higher income for the clubs. In the knockout phase, the descent to the Europa League is omitted and only the best teams move on. In addition, the draw of the knockout rounds is optimized for the last 16 teams; It is only drawn once, which saves time and increases the tension.

play dates and transfer rights

The Champions League starts with the qualification round on July 9, 2024, followed by the first league game day on September 17 and 18, 2024. All games in the group phase take place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 6:45 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., complemented by a few games on Thursday. Transmission rights for the 2024/25 season share DAZN and Amazon Prime . There will be no free TV transmission.

The reform of the UEFA Champions League is a significant step in the continuous further development of the competition, which has been as a trophy of the European master associations in 1955 since it was founded. The approval of the new format was granted on May 10, 2022, after consultation with various stakeholders of the football community, to adapt the competition to the current development of football. The new rules should not only ensure the financial resources of the clubs sustainably, but also offer fans improved opportunities to experience top European games.