UEFA Club Competitions 2024/25 onwards: new league phase draw procedures explained

From the 2024/25 season, 36 clubs will participate in the newly created league phase (former Group Stage) of the UEFA Champions League, giving four more sides the opportunity to compete in Europe’s premier club competition. Under the new format, teams will play eight matches against eight different teams, rather than three teams twice as was previously the case. The new format will give fans more competitive and balanced matches on all levels throughout the league phase.

To determine the eight different opponents, teams will be seeded in four pots based on their individual club coefficient at the beginning of the season (the only exception being the UEFA Champions League titleholder always top seed in pot 1). Each team will then be drawn against two opponents from each pot, one of which will be at home and one away. The same will apply for the UEFA Europa League, while for the UEFA Conference League each side will face six opponents only, one from each of the six pots.

In the league phase teams cannot face opponents from their country and can be drawn against a maximum of two sides from the same country.

How will the draw work?

The new format requires a new draw concept. In fact, if the old draw concept for the group stage were to be applied to the new league phase format, nearly 1000 balls would be required, with at least 36 bowls on stage, resulting in an unbearably lengthy draw.

All 36 teams will be manually drawn using physical balls. For every team manually drawn, a designated automated software will randomly draw eight opponents across the four pots, who will be revealed on screen in the draw hall and on television. The software will also decide which matches will be at home and which ones away.

The draw will start with Pot 1, assigning eight opponents to all nine teams, one after the other, and will continue with the other pots in descending order until all teams have been assigned their eight opponents. The software will guarantee total randomness within the framework of the draw conditions stipulated by the regulations (e.g. country protection and no more than two opponents from the same country), while guaranteeing that the draw can be completed for all teams without resulting at any point in a deadlock situation.

Even though the teams will know all their opponents by the end of the draw, the fixture list with match dates and kick-off times will be elaborated afterwards and announced on Saturday 31 August, to ensure no calendar clashes with teams in UEFA Europa League and UEFA Conference League playing in the same cities.

The draw software is provided by AE Live. Since their appointment in September 2023 as partner for all UEFA draws, they have developed and tested the software, integrating various internal and external mechanisms to check and verify the results.

The whole draw development has been reviewed by an external auditor, Ernst & Young, with particular regard to the randomness and compliance with the draw rules. Ernst & Young will also provide the review and control of the manual and digital draw operations on-site.