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How Does The New UEFA Champions League Format Work?

13 Apr, 2025
How Does The New UEFA Champions League Format Work?

The Champions League is the highest-level competition in European club football. Staged each year across dozens of countries spanning the length and breadth of Europe, this elite knockout tournament pits some of the world's most talented players and coaches against each other, producing unrivalled drama and often showcasing the sport at its very best.

The exact format of this competition has changed a few times over the years. For decades, the top clubs in Europe have been battling it out for the title of European champion, but different structures have been used to showcase these sporting conflicts.

At the start of the 2024/25 season, a major change took place, with a league phase introduced to the UEFA Champions League and significant upheaval also taking place in the structuring of the knockout system.

In this article, we'll be explaining exactly what changes were made at this point, but before we dive into the new format, we're going to run you through the history of Europe's premier club competition.

A Brief History Of The European Cup

The idea to stage an annual competition pitting Europe's best teams against each other was first raised by the highly influential French sports journalist Gabriel Hanot (the founder of the Ballon d'Or). He persuaded European football's governing body UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) to launch a European Cup in 1955, having been inspired by the success of the equivalent South American Championship of Champions tournament. 

The first edition of the tournament saw 16 different league champions from across Europe compete against each other, with sides like Milan, Sporting CP, and Real Madrid all taking part. Los Blancos were the inaugural winners of the competition, and original Galacticos like Ferenc Puskas and Alfredo Di Stefano helped them go on to win the following four cups as well, dominating the early years of the European Cup.

In the 1960s, other clubs emerged to rival Madrid for the trophy, with Eusebio leading Benfica to back-to-back victories before Celtic and Manchester United became the first British and English clubs to win the tournament towards the end of the decade.

The prestige of the European Cup continued to grow during the 1970s and 1980s, before in 1991 UEFA made the decision to rebrand Europe's premier club knockout competition as 'the Champions League' and launch a new era for the tournament.

At first, the format was very different from the one we're familiar with today. The inaugural edition saw 32 teams split into two separate groups, with the two group winners then clashing in the final.

A semi-final phase was then added a couple of years later before 1994/95 saw the introduction of the format that has dominated the UCL for most of its modern history: 32 teams divided into several groups, with the winners and runners-up in each group progressing to the knockout phases.

Groups of four followed by a Round of 16 was introduced in 2003 and this structure helped spark some of the Champions League's most memorable occasions in the subsequent years. However, this format is no longer in use.

When Was The New Champions League Format Introduced?

The beginning of the 2024/25 campaign saw the introduction of a brand new Champions League format, with the competition expanded to 36 teams and those sides organised into one huge league phase rather than being divided into a number of different groups. 

The previous round-robin group stage system, where every club in a group of four plays each other home and away, has been scrapped. For the Champions League, Europa League and the Europa Conference League (the continent's second and third-best club knockout competitions), a new era has begun. But how exactly does the restructured Champions League competition work?

How Does The New Champions League Work?

The new UCL format starts with a League Phase in which each club plays a minimum of eight league games against randomly selected opponents. Each team plays four games at home and four away, and their opponents in these games are determined using a seeding system. 

As UEFA explains, "to determine the eight different opponents, the teams will initially be ranked in four seeding pots. Each team will then be drawn to play two opponents from each of these pots, playing one match against a team from each pot at home, and one away."

This system replicates the seeded structure that previously organised the UCL's 32 sides into fairly distributed groups of four. Just like in a regular domestic league season, teams are awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw, and zero points for a loss, and organised into a league table accordingly.

After the eight games in the new-look Champions League opening round conclude, the top eight teams in the league qualify for the Champions League Round of 16 automatically. 

Meanwhile, the clubs that finish between 9th and 24th in the table must enter a play-off round to determine who exits the tournament and who progresses to join the automatically qualified sides. Clubs that finish between 25th and 36th in the table will be knocked out automatically.

The introduction of the new format has changed things dramatically, although it's worth noting that once we reach the Last 16, the rest of the tournament progresses as it normally would, with the aggregate winner of each two-legged tie going through to the quarter-finals, then the semi-finals, then the final.

The Benefits Of The New Champions League Format

The creation of the new-look UCL divided opinion, with plenty of people criticising UEFA for the sweeping changes. However, as the 2024/25 tournament progressed, many people became convinced of the benefits of the Champions League group stage being transformed into a league phase followed by a knockout play-off round. 

One key benefit is the increased jeopardy created for some of the continent's biggest, most successful teams. For example, 2023 European Cup winners Manchester City faltered in the league phase and were only able to finish 22nd, meaning they went into the play-offs unseeded and were beaten comprehensively by their experienced, seeded rivals Real Madrid. Italian giants Juventus were also knocked out at this early stage by PSV, showing that no club is safe from elimination within the new tournament.

Another benefit of the new system is that it rewards the clubs that performed best in the group stages, regardless of how much previous Champions League pedigree they have. For example, Aston Villa's stellar performances in the league phase secured them an eighth-place finish, while French underdogs Lille managed to grab an excellent seventh-place finish.

As a result, these two teams benefited from a well-earned rest while clubs like Man City, Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, and Bayern Munich all had to grapple around in the play-offs to secure entry to the Champions League knockout round.

That being said, when the new UCL structure was introduced, there was no guarantee that it would create this kind of system, and many people worried that it would actually make Europe's premier club competition less competitive.

The Weaknesses Of The New Champions League Format

Competitiveness was a key concern when this new format was announced. Certain critics of UEFA responded to the changes by accusing the governing body of appeasing the most vocal advocates of the European Super League, who had attempted to introduce this breakaway league in order to guarantee consistent revenue for the continent's richest clubs.

By adding more games and lengthening the competition, the UCL restructure arguably played into the hands of these Super League fans. While it's still possible for big teams to be knocked out in the league phase or the play-off round, the likelihood of an early exit is still reduced, as they're essentially given another opportunity to squeeze through even if they finish as low as 22nd place in the league phase. The inaugural season of the new format does have the potential to protect underperforming big clubs, although it's not exactly a given.

A more simplistic criticism — and something that the majority of fans, pundits, and certainly coaches can get behind — is the fact that it worsens fixture congestion. Players across Europe and further afield are already forced to play a huge amount of games each calendar year, with the expansion of the Club World Cup set to make matters even worse in the summer of 2025.

High-profile injuries to world-class talents like Rodri at Manchester City have intensified the pressure on governing bodies to attempt to reduce fixture congestion, but the expanded Champions League has only increased the number of games being played by Europe's top sides. It's understandable that player welfare is a concern in this context.

Finally, it's also worth mentioning that many people were saddened about the loss of the traditional format that saw eight groups of four teams battle it out for two knockout qualification spots in the group stages. This structure was in place for two decades and became a staple of the elite competition; however, it no longer has a place in Europe's premier club tournament.

The introduction of a league phase to the Champions League and Europa League has significantly changed the nature of top-level club competition in Europe. The long-term consequences are yet to be felt, but the 2024/25 edition has certainly already included some magical moments for Premier League clubs, from European football returning to Villa Park to Arsenal battering Real Madrid 3-0 at the Emirates, announcing Arteta's side on the European stage. 

As the Gunners continue building both on and off the pitch, why not check out our guide to their new sporting director Andrea Berta?

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