UEFA agrees on new set-up CL without group system and four more clubs
The executive committee of UEFA on Tuesday approved the new format of the Champions League, which starts in the 2024/2025 season. It is a system without a pool system and with eight instead of the usual six games per club in the first round. The number of clubs in the main tournament will be increased from 32 to 36.
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UEFA even wanted to go to a system with ten games per club in the first round. After fierce protests from the national leagues last month, that number has been reduced to eight.
What is special is that the clubs are no longer divided into different groups. A ranking is used with the 36 clubs, which do not all play against each other and at most once.
The best eight qualify for the last sixteen and are supplemented by the winners of the play-offs between the numbers 9 to 24.
Ajax director Edwin van der Sar is one of the initiators of this new set-up, which was announced last year shortly after the failed plan of the Super League.
Distribution of extra starting spots adjusted
Two of the four additional starting spots will go to the countries with the highest place in the UEFA ranking of the previous season. In the original plan, UEFA wanted to award two of the four extra places for the Champions League to clubs based on previous performances in the previous five seasons in Europe, and not on performance in the national league.
Larger European clubs would therefore be assured of participation more quickly, even if they did poorly in their own country. The plan led to a lot of criticism, so UEFA has adjusted it.
The other two extra places go to the number three from the league of the country that is fifth in the UEFA coefficient ranking and to a fifth champion from a smaller league that was not previously directly qualified.
At the moment, France is the number five of the coefficient ranking. The Netherlands is in seventh place.
UEFA agrees on new set-up CL without group system and four more clubs
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