The Champions League will change its current format for the 2024/25 season and have an eight-game first league stage. This was confirmed by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) in a statement published on its website.
“Following extensive consultations with game players, the UEFA Executive Committee today in Vienna approved the final format and access list for European club competitions from the 2024/25 season, having decided on 19 April 2021 to introduce the so-called ‘Swiss system'” , the entity began.
“The main changes concern the reduction from 10 to 8 matches in the league phase of the UEFA Champions League and the change in the criteria for awarding two of the four additional places in the UEFA Champions League, removing access based on club coefficient. This confirms UEFA’s strong commitment to the principle of open competitions and sporting merit, while recognizing the need to protect domestic leagues.”
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When are these games played?
As confirmed by UEFA. “The eight UEFA Champions League matches will be played over the ten European weeks envisaged in the April 2021 decision. The UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League all enjoy an exclusive calendar week.”
In addition, the number of clubs participating in a league phase distributed as follows will be increased from 32 to 36.
- A place goes to the third-placed team in the championship, which is fifth in the UEFA association rankings.
- A place is awarded to a national champion, increasing the number of clubs qualifying via the so-called ‘Route of Champions’ from four to five.
- The last two places go to the associations with the best overall club performance over the previous season (total points scored divided by the number of clubs taking part).