How does the new Champions League format work?

The UEFA Champions League is returning, but it’s not returning in the same manner. A new format for the 2024–2025 Champions League season marks perhaps the biggest change in the competition’s history.

After rebranding, Europe’s top club competition has given up on the conventional group stage format as it begins its 33rd season.

Rather, advancement to the knockout stages will be decided by a redesigned league stage with 36 clubs and two additional rounds of midweek matches.

In an attempt to defend a continental title they won for the fifteenth time earlier this year, Real Madrid will square off in the competition final in May at Munich’s Allianz Arena.

This year’s 36 clubs in the Champions League will constitute a single league, as opposed to the 32 competing teams being split into eight groups of four. For a total of eight fixtures – two more than under the previous format – each participant will play four games at home and four games away. These eight matches will feature eight distinct opponents.

Based on each club’s individual club coefficient at the beginning of the season, the 36 clubs will be seeded into four distinct pots. Two teams from each pot will play each other, one at home and one away. Real Madrid, the reigning champions, and the other top club teams based on the UEFA coefficient will be in Pot 1.

In terms of the draw, which took place on August 29 in Monte Carlo, Monaco, automated software instead randomly picked eight opponents for each side in turn across the four pots, and allocated which fixtures are at home and away.