The UEFA executive committee formalized on Tuesday the new format of the Champions League, which will come into force from the 2024-2025 season.
Faced with the growing threat of a European “Superleague” project, led by twelve big clubs from the Old Continent and which has shaken the world of football, UEFA has stayed the course. The body has carried out a major overhaul of the most prestigious of the European Cups to give it a whole new face.
This new formula will therefore see 36 clubs, instead of the current 32, on the starting line. They will be divided into four hats of nine teams which will play a mini-championship before the round of 16. There will be eight days.
Three places for France
The novelty compared to the first announcement a few months ago concerns the two places for so-called “historic” clubs, which would not have managed to qualify through their championship. It has been abandoned and the last two tickets will be distributed on sporting criteria.
“The last two places will go to the associations whose clubs have collectively achieved the best performance during the previous season (total number of points obtained divided by the number of participating clubs), explains UEFA on its site. These two associations will benefit from a place for the highest ranked club in their national championship after the last club qualified in the Champions League. For example, at the end of the current season, the two associations that could add a club to the Champions League based on the collective performance of their clubs would be England and the Netherlands.
Regarding France, if it retains its current fifth place in the UEFA index, it will end up with three guaranteed places.
The idea of a Final 4 in a single place with semi-finals over a single match was not retained.