The 2024 Champions League reform will come into force next season. This will be the last season in which the current Champions League format with a group stage will be used.
What changes will the reform bring to Europe’s most important club competition?
This is what the 2024 Champions League reform will look like
- 36 teams (instead of 32)
- Preliminary round: one league instead of eight groups
- “Group matches”: Each team has eight games (4x home, 4x away)
- An exclusive CL week incl. games on Thursday
- 24 of the 36 teams qualify for the knockout phase: 8 advance directly to the round of 16, the other 16 play in a play-off round beforehand.
- The last 12 teams in the final table are eliminated. There are no more teams relegated to the Europa League.
Why is there a Champions League reform in 2024?
The UEFA around President Aleksander Ceferin was under great pressure due to the possible establishment of the European Super League, which the big teams from Spain, Italy and England are considering.
The Champions League Reform 2024 was therefore decided.
What exactly does the 2024 Champions League reform look like?
First and foremost, it affects the number of participants: while 32 teams have qualified for the top flight to date, the number will increase by 4 to 36 from next season.
In addition, there will no longer be a group stage in the top flight with eight groups of four teams each, but one league with all 36 teams. The new procedure is referred to as the “Swiss model.”
This is what the Champions League reform looks like
What is the “Swiss model” in the 2024 Champions League reform?
The 36 participants in the 2024/25 Champions League will be drawn into four pots of nine teams each. The composition of these four pots is based on the club coefficient.
Each team will play a total of eight games in the group stage (4 home & 4 away games). To date, there have only been six matches in the group stage of the Champions League.
The results from these matches are included in an overall table. After the eight-match “basic round”, the teams in places 1 to 8 qualify directly for the round of 16.
The clubs in places 9 to 24 play in a play-off round for the remaining eight tickets for the round of 16.
Comparison Champions League old vs. Champions League new
In the knockout phase, the teams in places 9 to 16 are seeded for the draw for the play-off round. These teams will face the teams in places 17 to 24.
As a result, matches between two teams from the same country will be possible from the knockout play-off round instead of the quarter-finals, as was previously the case.
The better-placed teams will also have home court in the second legs. After the play-off round, a new draw will be held. The eight winners will face the eight teams that qualified directly.
Another change that comes with the 2024 Champions League reform concerns the teams in places 25 to 36.
Those who do not make it through to the knockout round after the eight preliminary round match days – i.e. the teams that finish the final table in 25th to 36th place – will see their European Cup season come to an end. This means that there are no more teams relegated to the Europa League
Champions League reform: Who gets the 4 other places?
The distribution of the 4 additional places in the Champions League will be as follows as a result of the reform from the coming season:
Two additional places will go to the nations whose teams were most successful in the past European Cup season. A further place will go to the third-placed team from the country in fifth place in the UEFA rankings.
In addition, there is a national champion who receives a ticket via the “Champions Route” qualification mode. The number of starting places will increase from four to five in the future
Champions League Reform 2024: participants & teams
- Winners of the Champions League & Europa League 2023/24
- 2 Extra teams of the associations with the highest & second-highest coefficient 2023/24
- Champions to fourth from England’s Premier League
- Champions up to fourth from Spain’s La Liga
- Champions to fourth from Germany’s Bundesliga
- Champions to fourth from Italy’s Serie A
- Champions to third from France’s Ligue 1
- Champions and runners-up from Holland’s Eredivisie
- Champions from Portugal, Belgium, Scotland & Austria
- 5 Winners of the Champions Path (qualification)
- 2 Winner of the League Path (qualification)
Who will benefit from the CL Reform 2024?
The biggest beneficiaries of the CL reform are the top nations. The two best associations from the previous season, for example, will receive an additional starting place in the top flight.
As things stand, France is another beneficiary. In the UEFA five-year ranking, the association ranks in the aforementioned fifth place, which gives it a third starting place.
Apart from the teams, UEFA is of course also a beneficiary, and not just because of the threat of the Super League.
President Aleksander Ceferin said the following after the reform was announced: “We are convinced that we have found the right balance with the chosen format, which will improve sporting balance and generate solid revenues that can be distributed to clubs, leagues and grassroots soccer across the continent. At the same time, the attractiveness and popularity of our competitions should increase. ”
How will the reform affect the Europa League and Conference League?
The format changes in the Europa League and Conference League are similar to the premier league.
Like the Champions League, both competitions have 36 teams in common.
There are differences in terms of match days. While the Europa League also has eight match days in the group stage, the Conference League only has six
Champions League reform: the 2024/25 dates
The Champions League dates for the 2024/25 season have already been set. It starts on September 17 & 18 with the group stage.
The preliminary round in the new format will run until the end of January. Unlike in the past, the first round of 16 finalists will no longer be determined in mid-December but in the new year.
Another new aspect of the Champions League schedule is that there will be the aforementioned knockout round play-offs before the round of 16. These will take place on February 11/12 & 18/19 in the 2024/25 season.
The round of 16 will then continue from early to mid-March. The rest of the tournament will follow the previous format.
This means that the quarter-finals will take place from early to mid-April. The four remaining teams will then play the semi-finals on April 29/30 & May 6/7, 2025.
The Champions League final in Munich is scheduled for May 31, 2025
The Champions League dates 2024/25 at a glance
- 1st matchday group stage: September 17/18, 2024
- 2nd matchday group stage: October 1-2, 2024
- 3rd matchday group stage: October 22/23, 2024
- 4th matchday group stage: November 5/6, 2024
- 5th matchday group stage: November 26/27, 2024
- 6th matchday group stage: December 10/11, 2024
- 7th matchday group stage: January 21/22, 2025
- 8th matchday group stage: January 29, 2025
- K.o. round playoffs: February 11/12 & 18/19, 2025
- Quartefinals: March 4/5 & 11/12, 2025
- Quarter-finals: April 8/9 & 15/16, 2025
- Semi-finals: April 29/30 & May 6/7, 2025
- Final in Munich: May 31, 2025
What does the new Champions League calendar for 2024/25 look like
The group stage of the Champions League and Europa League takes place from September to January. The UEFA Conference League is different, running from September to December.
Another novelty is the exclusive match week, which will be introduced in the coming season. All three UEFA club competitions will have exclusive matchweeks in which only the respective competition is played.
This means the following for the Champions League: In a normal matchweek, the games will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday as usual. In an exclusive match week, the match day extends from Tuesday to Thursday.
By way of comparison, the Europa League and Conference League will continue to take place on Thursdays in a normal match week. In an exclusive match week, the situation only changes for the Europa League. Matches will then be played on Wednesday and Thursday.
One of the new features of the calendar is that all matches on the last matchday of the league phase will be played at the same time.
Champions League reform: How many games will there be from 2024/25?
In the current mode, the premier league consists of 125 matches.
As a result of the reform, the Champions League mode will include a total of 225 matches from the 2024/25 season – i.e. 100 more matches in total.
The number of matches to be played will therefore increase to an unprecedented level for the successful clubs in the top flight.
Instead of 13, for example, the upcoming Champions League winners will play 17 matches from the coming season onwards.
Champions League broadcast: Who will be showing the new premier league?
DaZN currently holds the majority of the broadcasting rights to the Champions League in Germany. With the exception of one match on Tuesday, the sports streaming service has all the games in the premier league in its program. This one match is shown exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in Germany.
This broadcast line-up will not change even after the Champions League reform in 2024.
DAZN will be allowed to broadcast 186 of the 203 matches from 2024/25 to 2026/27. Amazon will show 17 matches per season in the reformed top flight via its streaming service from the 2024/25 season onwards.
