UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE. As the Champions League draw takes place this Thursday, August 25, we already know all the dates for the competition.
The 2022-2023 version of the Champions League begins in a few days! After qualifying and the play-offs throughout the month of August, it’s now time for the group stage of the most prestigious of competitions with the draw scheduled for this Thursday, August 25 from UEFA headquarters. If we do not yet know the details of the matches, we already know the schedule for the first day of this Champions League version 2022-2023. A few weeks ago, UEFA made an appointment with football fans on September 6 and 7 for the kick-off of the competition.
For this edition, if our eyes will be riveted on the two French clubs, Paris and Marseille, several clubs have qualified for the group stage this Wednesday August 24 after the play-offs as we indicated above. The Scots of Glasgow Rangers notably qualified for this group stage of the Champions League, twelve years after their last participation, by winning 1-0 at PSV Eindhoven, scorer of AS Monaco, during the return play-off this Wednesday after its 2-2 draw in the first leg. Copenhagen and Dinamo Zagreb complete the final line-up.
The group stage of the Football Champions League is played from Tuesday September 6, 2022 to Wednesday November 2, 2022 while the knockout stage will be played from Tuesday February 14, 2023 to Wednesday May 17, 2023. As for the final, it is scheduled for June 10, 2023 at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul. The calendar was then drawn up as follows by UEFA:
- Groups
- Day 1: September 6-7, 2022
- Day 2: September 13-14, 2022
- Day 3: October 4-5, 2022
- Day 4: October 11-12, 2022
- Day 5: October 25-26, 2022
- Day 6: November 1-2, 2022
- Direct elimination
- Round of 16: February 14-15-21-22 and March 7-8-14-15, 2023
- Quarter-finals: 11-12 and 18-19 April 2023
- Semi-finals: May 9-10 and 16-17, 2023
- Final: June 10, 2023
UEFA wanted a reform of the Champions League, the latter was enacted this Tuesday, May 10 for the 2024/2025 season. To put it simply, the group stage will be replaced by a mini championship with 36 teams in total against 32 currently . Each club will face eight different teams (four at home, four away) and will therefore play two more matches than with the current format. Thereafter, the eight best teams of this first phase will be directly qualified for the final phases, and the clubs classified between the 9e and the 24e place will face each other in round-trip matches in play-offs to complete the final table.
Thanks to this reform, France obtains a 3rd direct qualifying place for the group stage of the Champions League since it is currently the 5th European nation. This reform also inflates the number of matches since from 2024, 225 matches will be scheduled instead of the current 125. In the team Wednesday May 11, the president of UEFA Aleksander Ceferin justified this change. “Just because something is working well doesn’t mean you should never change anything again
he also explained. Always try to improve. […] Believe me, it’s not made for the big clubs. […] It will be much more interesting. In the current formula, in the group stage, we know which clubs will qualify after two or three matches.”
The TV rights battle continued to rage. UEFA has awarded the French TV rights for the “Big Ears Cup” to beIN Sports and Canal+, which thus ensure the broadcasting of the Champions League. RMC Sport will co-broadcast with Canal the two best Champions League posters until 2024 and beIN SPORTS will offer all the remaining matches.