The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is updating the Champions League draw process for the 2024-25 season, introducing an automated system with four seeding pots and manual draws. The final fixtures will be announced on August 31.
The governing body of European football will implement an automated draw system in Monte Carlo, Monaco, at the end of August. Amid confusion around the topic, here’s a run down of how the UEFA has changed the team draw rules in Champions League.
This change aligns with the introduction of a new format for UEFA’s top club competition, which will now feature 36 teams in a league phase, up from previous years, replacing the former group stage.In the new Champions League draw, 36 teams will be assigned to four seeding pots. Teams will be manually drawn, with their opponents selected via automated software. The final fixtures will be announced on August 31.
Here’s exactly how the draw will take place in Champions League
UEFA will introduce a new automated draw process for the Champions League starting from the 2024-25 season. The draw will feature four seeding pots, with each of the 36 teams assigned to one of these pots based on their coefficient rankings.
Pots will include the top nine clubs in pot one, the next nine in pot two, and so on. The draw will be conducted manually at the Grimaldi Forum in Monte Carlo, where teams will be drawn from each pot by hand.
After a team, such as Real Madrid, is drawn, automated software will randomly select their eight opponents. This will come with results displayed on screen. Under the new format, teams will face opponents from two different pots. This will add competitiveness by having top teams play against each other before the knockout stages.
The final fixture list will be announced on 31 August to avoid scheduling conflicts with Europa League and Conference League matches.
Here’s how UEFA previously conducted the team draws
Top-seeded teams like Real Madrid and Manchester City, were placed in pot one in previous seasons. These were then drawn into eight separate groups. After placing the pot one teams, clubs from pots two, three, and four were then manually assigned to these groups.
Consequently, each group featured one team from each pot, with each team playing the other three home and away.However, there’s a major concern with the new method.
The primary concern is that the software used to determine a club’s eight league phase fixtures s likely to fail when the button is pressed on stage.
But the UEFA has prepared backup systems in case of such failures, and additional contingencies are also in place to ensure the draw proceeds smoothly if these backups fail.
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