This season, Club will once again enter the highest possible stage: the Champions League. Familiar territory for Blue-Black, as it will be its sixth campaign in seven years. But next season the Champions League will come in a new format. Here's what you need to know!
League phase with 36 teams
Perhaps the biggest change is the disappearance of the group stage as we know it now. No more group stage with say PSG, Leverkusen and Galatasaray, but 8 unique opponents in a 'League phase'. Instead of 32 teams, we will have 36 teams in the CL.
So, concretely, Club will soon play 8 matches in the League phase against 8 different opponents. The 36 teams are still divided into four pots and each club draws two opponents from each pot. To Bayern and at home against Liverpool: it's possible, because Club gets an away and home match from each pot. So out of those 8 games, we will play four at home and four on the road.
Follow the draw live with us and the players
What is not possible in the League phase is playing against a team from the same country. Also, we will face a maximum of two teams from the same country.
The new format also calls for a new kind of draw. Because of the new format, a new way of drawing lots has also been developed. If we were to draw in the old-fashioned way, the draw would take up to 3-4 hours and require as many as 900 balls. Therefore, UEFA is now working with a hybrid system. For example, when someone draws the Club Brugge ball, the computer will decide which eight teams we will face, four at home and four away.
General standings
No pools of four teams, so the standings will also look different. Like national leagues, the Champions League will work with an overall ranking that will include all 36 teams .
So after the eighth day of play, we will see an overall ranking. There we will see Club and its eight opponents, as well as all other participants. But who exactly will advance to the next round?
- Position 1-8: placed directly for the eighth final.
- Position 9-24: play a knockout round against each other. The winner from each game joins the top eight in the eighth final.
- Position 25-36: direct elimination.
For the losers of the knockout round and the clubs that are directly eliminated, there is no Europa League safety net . The Europa League works according to the same system, there is no Conference League safety net there either.
Watch a summary in video form via the link below:
Champions League Format Explained
Pots
Due to the new format, the pot draw has less value, as each club will face two teams from each pot anyway. But still, we give you the pots. The pots are based on the club's performance in Europe over the past five years and therefore its position in the UEFA ranking. As a result, Club ends up in pot two.
Pot 1:
- Manchester City
- Bayern Munich
- Real Madrid
- PSG
- Liverpool
- Inter Milan
- Dortmund
- RB Leipzig
- Barcelona
Pot 2:
- Bayer Leverkusen
- Atletico Madrid
- Atalanta
- Juventus
- Benfica
- Arsenal
- Club Brugge
- Shakhtar Donetsk
- AC Milan
Pot 3:
- Feyenoord
- Sporting CP
- PSV
- Celtic
- Young Boys Bern
- Dinamo Zagreb
- Lille OSC
- FC Salzburg
- Red Star Belgrade
Pot 4:
- AS Monaco
- Aston Villa
- Bologna
- Girona
- Stuttgart
- Sturm Graz
- Brest
- Sparta Prague
- Slovan Bratislava
Playing schedule
8 matches in the League phase, the first phase of the Champions League, FCB is already sure of that this season. Of those, four matches will be at Jan Breydel and four elsewhere in Europe.
Remarkable: Club is already sure of European "wintering", as two more League phase matches are scheduled in January.
- Matchday 1: September 17-19, 2024
- Matchday 2: 1-2 October 2024
- Matchday 3: 22-23 October 2024
- Matchday 4: November 5-6, 2024
- Matchday 5: 26-27 November 2024
- Matchday 6: 10-11 December 2024
- Matchday 7: January 21-22, 2025
- Matchday 8: 29 January 2025
The League Phase draw will take place on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. Discover the opponents with us? During our big live show, we will discover with the players against whom we will finish our European campaign!