- Champions League draw now electronic
- New format: 36-team competition
- Manual draw impractical, computer aids
Due to the complexity of the newly expanded Champions League format, the draw will be conducted electronically, as Uefa determined that the process could take up to four hours without digital assistance.
Next season will feature a 36-team competition, with a table constructed based on the outcomes of eight rounds of league-phase matches (each team will encounter eight opponents, four at home and four away). The best eight teams advance to the round of 16, while the remaining sixteen teams compete in a knockout round to complete the lineup. The governing body is confident that this system will produce more high-profile matches with increased danger compared to the existing Champions League structure. However, elucidating its complexities might present a difficulty.
The draw for the initial league phase is one example. In the same manner as the current format, every team will be allocated to one of four pots according to their Uefa classification.
However, as an alternative to the current system, one team will play abroad and the other at home against opponents selected from their pot. Additionally, two opponents will be drawn from each of the remaining containers. With further details to consider, such as clubs from the same country being prevented from confronting each other, the group stage draw becomes more and more complicated.
Following trials that indicated the manual draw process would require approximately the same duration (three to four hours, or the length of the Oscars) as the manual draw, Uefa has determined that only the initial team selection from pot one will be performed manually. Then, a computer programmed by a Hertfordshire-based corporation will determine which opponents the team will face at home and which they will face away. Uefa asserts that the procedure will be audited by the accounting firm Ernst and Young to ensure the fairness of the broadcast drawings and that the process will be secure.
Additionally, later in the draw, tennis-style seeding will be implemented in the quarterfinal stages. The initial eight teams advancing to the knockout stages will be seeded by their league phase standing. This means that, unlike in a tennis tournament, the best two teams would not face off against one another until the championship match. Clubs will determine the route to the championship following the conclusion of the last-16 draw, which takes place before the semifinals.
Additionally, the football schedule will be modified to include one match week during which only matches from Uefa’s three club competitions (the Europa League and Europa Conference League, also empa employee phase system) are played. Uefa’s deputy secretary, Giorgio Marchetti, described the format as “the most revolutionary or evolutionary change in thirty years.”
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Because none of the competitions this season have progressed to the quarterfinals, Uefa has taken the initiative to elucidate its new format. Given the ongoing turmoil in European club football, the outcome is highly dependent on its performance.
Since 2018, the Uefa executive committee has deliberated on the new format, which was finally approved weeks before the European Super League failed to launch.
As owners and spectators evaluate the format’s value, it will continue to be intensely scrutinised. The Super League initiative is still in the process of being launched, and additional potential competitors are in the works following a legal ruling that prevented Uefa from suspending new competitions without justification.
Uefa has announced that it will annually distribute €1.2 billion (£1 billion) in solidarity payments from its club competitions to non-participating teams and other European competitions. Additionally, it indicates that the number of clubs permitted to compete in Europe increased from 96 to 108.
Eleven English organisations might qualify for Europe in a single, exceedingly improbable circumstance. This week, the possibility of the Premier League securing a fifth Champions League spot for the following season would be increased should West Ham defeat Freiburg, thereby elevating England’s Uefa ranking.
