The Champions League is still evolving and will change format during the 2024-2025 season, to the chagrin of some clubs.
Already elitist, the Champions League will be more so during the 2024-2025 season. The current format will be completely revisited. The group system will be abolished for a kind of championship bringing together not 32 teams, but 36 clubs. How to open the competition to more nations? Not really: first, new places will be awarded to the country that wins the cup with the “big ears” and to the 5th UEFA federation. Two additional places will also be granted to the two best championships. For example, the fifth in Series A, the Italian championship, could directly qualify for European competition.
So far, there were 6 matches (round trip) because the groups were made up of four formations. In 2024, not all of them will be played. On the other hand, the clubs will respectively play two additional matches, namely 8 matches. Each team will receive 4 times and move 4 times.
All the meetings will take place from mid-September to mid-January, during the week, at the usual times (6.45 p.m. and 9 p.m.). The top eight will qualify while there will be a home and away play-off for those ranked between 9th and 24th place. After the 25th position, the clubs will be eliminated. And above all, there will be no fallback to another European table, as is the case today with the Europa League. Being eliminated from the Champions League will therefore be tantamount to being wiped off the European map.
The calendar will therefore be busier and access to the Champions League more restricted. A formula that displeases the smaller clubs, which will obviously suffer the brunt of this reform. With the new rules, we will give more credit to the big football nations, to obtain big posters and XXL confrontations. There could also be inequalities in confrontations with one-sided duels or on the contrary very undecided.