The Champions League is changing forever, with more teams (36 and not 32) and more matches (two more rounds and a round of 32 – for some – that did not exist until now). From today, the classic group stage format is eliminated and a league of all against all is introduced, although not everyone plays against everyone else.
The draw in Monaco (18:00, Movistar Liga de Campeones) is a complete turnaround. Each team will know its eight opponents – two per pot, one at home and one away – through a computer system. The introduction of software that defines the different opponents of each pot is as challenging to the tradition of the Champions League as the introduction of a league instead of groups. The company AE Live, associated with UEFA, has been in charge of developing the software that will draw the opponents of each team.
With the change in format, the teams in pot 1, the top ranked, will face two other teams from the same pot for the first time, one at home and one away. Real Madrid, City, Bayern, PSG, Liverpool, Inter, Dortmund, Leipzig and Barcelona will be in this pot. Teams from the same country cannot compete. There is also a limit of two teams per league, whether they are from the same pot or from different ones.
In this way, UEFA is ensuring more top-level matches from the start, a method that sounds like a response to the threat of the Super League, although yesterday in Monaco the general secretary, Giorgio Marchetti, said the opposite.
In pot 2 there will be Leverkusen, Atlético, Atalanta, Juventus, Benfica, Arsenal, Club Brugge, Shakhtar and Milan. When it is their turn to find out who their opponents are, they will already know who they are in pot 1; the same will happen successively with those in pot 3 with respect to 2 and 1; and with those in pot 4 with respect to 3, 2 and 1, but they will have to find out who they are in the same pot as.
Pot 3 will include Feyenoord, Sporting, PSV, Salzburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Lille, Young Boys, Celtic and Red Star. Pot 4 will include Slovan Bratislava, Monaco, Sparta Prague, Aston Villa, Bologna, Girona, Stuttgart, Sturm Graz and Brest.
A full-blown revolution, a turnaround for the continent’s top club competition. From the league of 36, the top eight will advance to the round of 16; the ninth to 24th will play a round of 32 against each other; and the bottom 12 will be eliminated.
The draw will be attended by two legends, Gianluigi Buffon and Cristiano Ronaldo, who will receive the President’s Award as a tribute to their careers and will help in the outcome of the draw. Two luxury guests for a historic day, one that changes the landscape forever, one that turns the Champions League into a league and the draw into a computerized outcome.
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