All You Need to Know About the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League Format

Everything you need to know about the upcoming changes to the UEFA Champions League format.

City will participate in Europe’s elite club competition for the 14th consecutive year in the 2024/25 season.

Someone’s are aiming for a second trophy, having won it in 2023 with a win over Inter in Istanbul.

But next season will be a new experience for all our teams, as the tournament structure will change for the new season.

In each season that City have competed in the Champions League, 32 teams have been divided into groups of four to determine the 16 that would progress to the knockout stages.

The UEFA Executive Committee has now moved away from this format and next year will be the first year of the new system.

League Phase

Instead of 32 teams split into eight groups of four, there will be one league involving all 36 teams that were hoping to reach this phase of the tournament.

In the new format, teams play eight matches in the league. They no longer play three opponents twice, home and away, but instead play eight different teams, playing four matches at home and four away.

To determine the eight different opponents, teams are first split into four seeding pots.

They then play two teams from each pot, the home team and the away team.

Promotion to the Knockout Phase

A win in the league gives a team 3 points, a draw gives a team 1 point.

The top 8 teams in the league automatically qualify for the round of 16, while teams ranked 9th to 24th take part in a home-and-away knock-out play-off for a place in the round of 16.

Teams ranked 25th or lower are eliminated and lose out on a place in the Europa League.

From the round of 16 onwards the competition continues to follow the existing format with a knock-out round leading to the final at a neutral venue.

When is the draw for the League Phase held?

The draw for the league phase of the Champions League for the 2024/25 season will be held on 29 August 2024.

On this day, City find themselves facing eight opponents in the league.

As always, they will report in detail in our official app and on mancity.com.

When will the games be played?

Matches for the league phase of the Champions League will be played from September to January. Most weeks, matches are played on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

However, there are Champions League-only weeks where a matchday falls on a Thursday (no Europa League or Conference League matches are scheduled).

The final matchday of the league phase will see all 18 matches being played simultaneously.