The European competition changes its format and increases the number of participating teams starting with the 2024-2025 edition, from 32 to 36, with the aim of “playing a more competitive first phase with more diversity and participation.”
The Champions League will debut its new format in the 2024-2025 seasonfirst proposed by the UEFA in April 2021 and approved in May 2022. The entity estimated that the starting value of this new game design is US$4,780 million, an increase of 25.7% compared to US$3,800 million in the cycle. former.
The new financial distribution increases solidarity payments by 10% and will give 3% to qualified teams and 7% to non-participants. In addition, the Women’s Champions League and the Youth League will have a prize money of US$27 million.
The eight matches of the Uefa Champions League will be played in the ten European weeks planned. Besides, The Champions League, the Europa League and the Europa Conference League will enjoy a week of exclusivity on the calendar.
With the new format introduced by Uefa, The participating teams will go from 32 to 36. All of them will play eight games in the new league stage (the old group stage). The allocation criteria for two of the additional places will also change, and access based on the clubs’ coefficient will be eliminated.
MANCHESTER CITY CAMPEON CHAMPIONS 2023.webp
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This way, A place will be awarded to the club ranked third in the federation championship in fifth position in the ranking of national federations from Uefa. A place will be awarded to a national champion, expanding the number of clubs that qualify through the so-called Champions Route from four to five.
Biggest change
The last two places will go to the federations with the best collective performance of their clubs in the previous season. Those two federations will obtain a place for the highest-ranked club in the national league behind the Uefa Champions League positions. For example, at the end of the current season the two federations that add a club to the Champions League, based on the collective performance of their clubs, They would be England and the Netherlands.
By increasing the total number of teams from 32 to 36 in the Uefa Champions League, The biggest change will be the transformation of the traditional group stage into a single league stage that includes all participating teams.s. Each club will be guaranteed a minimum of eight league stage matches against eight different opponents (four home and four away) instead of the previous six matches against three teams, played home and away.
The top eight teams in the league will automatically qualify for the knockout stagewhile the teams that finish between ninth and twenty-fourth place will play a two-legged eliminator to ensure a place in the round of 16 of the competition.
Similar format changes will also apply to the UEFA Europa League (eight games in the league phase) and to the UEFA Europa Conference League (six games in the league phase) and both will also include 36 teams in the league phase.
Source: Ambito
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