UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE. The 2022-2023 Champions League schedule is tight due to the FIFA World Cup. The play-offs are scheduled for the end of August before the draw for the group stage.
One more step for the survivors of the preliminary rounds of the 2022-2023 Champions League! To hope to join the group stage of the most prestigious of European competitions, there remains the pitfall of the play-offs scheduled for August 16-17 for the first legs and August 23-24 for the return matches. Alas, it will be without AS Monaco eliminated in the third preliminary round by PSV Eindhoven after extra time in the second leg. The Dutch trained by ex-scorer Ruud Van Nistelrooy will play their place in the pools against Glasgow Rangers. The other clash of the play-offs will see Dynamo Kyiv take on Benfica Lisbon.
In the group stage, two French clubs will begin their journey in the Champions League, PSG and OM. Who will take over from Real Madrid next May, winners of the Champions League once again in 2022 at the Stade de France? For this new season, the schedule is tight with all group stage matches from September 6 to November 2, 2022, just before the World Cup in Qatar. The final phase will begin on February 14 before the final on June 10, 2023.
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:
- Qualifications
- Third qualifying round: 2-3 and 9 August 2022
- Play-offs: August 16-17 and 23-24, 2022
- 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 draw.
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.