Teams from the identical nation could have extra probabilities to play one another when the Champions League and different European membership competitions are revamped subsequent yr, UEFA stated Monday.
There shall be an open draw for the spherical of 16 with out so-called “country protection” and two groups from a high-ranked nation might additionally face one another within the new league stage “to avoid a deadlock in the draw,” UEFA acknowledged.
Currently, groups from the identical nation are all the time separated within the conventional group stage and can’t meet within the knockout section till the quarterfinals.
That modifications within the 2024-25 season when the Champions League, Europa League and re-branded Conference League every transfer to a 36-team format with a single standings desk.
Teams within the Champions League and Europa League will play eight video games every within the league section, which is able to finish in January. Conference League groups could have six rounds ending in December.
The further video games, drawn from 4 seeding pots every containing 9 groups, means nation safety can’t be ensured for probably the most profitable nations.
“Exceptionally, a maximum of one match per club against another club from the same association may be allowed for associations with four or more clubs in the league phase,” UEFA stated in a letter to European soccer officers revealed Monday.
Other modifications to the normal look of UEFA membership competitions had been confirmed within the letter.
Teams who make the knockout rounds shall be drawn right into a seeded bracket — like a tennis event, separating the Nos. 1 and a couple of seeds till the ultimate — as an alternative of the present system of creating a contemporary draw for every spherical.
UEFA stated this was “to strengthen the synergy between league and knockout phases and to provide more sporting incentives to the league phase.” Teams ending high of the 36-team standings would be the No. 1 seed and people positioned second to eighth shall be seeded accordingly within the spherical of 16.
Teams positioned ninth to sixteenth shall be seeded within the new knockout playoff spherical in February, drawn towards unseeded groups inserting seventeenth to twenty fourth.
The new codecs will create extra midweek video games for UEFA and the Champions League is about to start out with an unique week enjoying from Tuesday to Thursday, Sept. 17-19, 2024.
One week later, the Europa League is scheduled to have its unique season launch on Sept. 25-26. The Conference League will begin on Oct. 3 and have an unique match night time on Dec. 19.
The league phases within the high two tiers will proceed into January with the Champions League having its seventh spherical on Jan. 21-22 and all groups in motion for the decisive eighth spherical on Jan. 29.
Another tweak to the Champions League in 2024-25 pertains to which workforce will get lifted out of the qualifying rounds as much as direct entry when the competitors is gained by a workforce that already earned its place subsequent season by its home league place.
Manchester City had already secured the Premier League title when it gained the Champions League remaining final month, which means the group-stage place reserved for the title holder went the nation with the best rating based mostly on UEFA competitors outcomes which didn’t have a direct entry. That was Ukraine and Shakhtar Donetsk bought the place.
Next yr, in an identical state of affairs, UEFA has determined that direct entry will go to the highest-ranked home champion within the qualifying rounds, quite than to a rustic. That might nonetheless reward Shakhtar, or a workforce like Dinamo Zagreb or Slavia Prague.
