Fans will have to get their heads around the first major change to the Champions League format for two decades as the new 36-team first-round league phase makes its debut for 2024/25.
While the previous incarnation remained the same for several years, the competition is no stranger to change with lots of tweaks and adjustments taking place as UEFA sought the perfect formula for its prized event.
The 2024/25 UEFA Champions League will see the competition undergo the most dramatic change in its history this season, with the number of teams increasing and a full-scale revamp to the opening round.
The competition proper will now see 36 teams competing for an opportunity at the biggest prize, up from 32, and the more recognisable group stage making way for an intriguing-looking league phase.
how will the new Champions League format work?
Every team will be placed in a single league, and then play eight fixtures against eight different opponents with four of these matches at home and four away.
At the end of the eight matchdays, the top eight teams in the league will then advance to the round of 16, where they will be joined by eight winners of two-legged play-offs between the sides finishing 9th-24th in the table.
The remaining teams in the league will be eliminated, as well as those who lose in the play-off round, leaving the surviving teams in the more traditional knockout phase, all the way to the final on Saturday 31 May, 2025 in Munich.
UEFA believe the new format will result in more competitive matches earlier in the competition, provide greater incentive and a broader range of opponents for lower-ranked teams and produce more matches between top teams early on.
This isn’t the first major change to Europe’s premier competition, with UEFA often tinkering and expanding it to increase and maintain growth as well as interest.
So what other changes have we seen through the years?
1991: Traditional knockout to semi-final groups
While today we are accustomed to many countries having multiple teams featuring in the tournament, the original European Cup was strictly a competition for a nation’s league champions as well as the holders from the previous campaign.
From its beginnings in 1955 up until 1991, the format was that of a traditional knockout tournament with a series of two-legged home/away ties whittling the participants down to two, who would go head-to-head in a single-legged final on nominally neutral ground.
The 1991/92 edition, which was the last iteration of the European Cup, saw the introduction of a group stage.
The first and second knockout rounds saw 32 teams eventually reduced to eight, setting up two groups of four.
Barcelona and Sampdoria would come out on top of their respective groups and faced off in the final at Wembley where the Catalans triumphed 2-0.
The competition was rebranded the Champions League for the following season and kept this format, with Marseille and AC Milan topping their semi-final groups to contest the final – won by the French side.
In 1993/94, the final-eight group stages continued.
However, it would be the top two from each group to advance to a one-legged semi-final.
The winners of Group A, Barcelona, took on Group B runners-up Porto at home, while Group B winners Milan hosted Monaco.
Barca and Milan advanced to the final where the Serie A giants trounced the 1992 winners 4-0 in Athens.
1994: early round group stage takes shape
The next big change came the following season in 1994/95 with the early knockout rounds now becoming qualifiers for the new 16-team group stage, made up of four teams of four.
The top two in each group booked their place in the knockouts of two-legged quarter and semi-finals, as holders Milan again reached the final where they were beaten 1-0 by Ajax in Vienna.
It was the same format the following two seasons where, curiously, the defending champions were again beaten in both finals – Juventus overcoming Ajax on penalties in 1996, then the Italians being bested by Dortmund in 1997.
1997: More groups, more teams, more jeopardy for group runners-up
The competition proper expanded to 24 teams for 1997/98, with the notable addition of second-placed teams from the top leagues now competing, rather than just solely the champions.
Teams were now drawn into six groups of four to battle it out for qualification to the latter rounds.
Six group winners would advance to the quarter-finals and only be joined in the last eight by the two best second-place sides, adding greater incentive for runners-up.
Real Madrid claimed the trophy after beating Juventus in the final.
The format would remain for the 1998/99 campaign, the tournament won by Manchester United in their famous treble season.
However, Sir Alex Ferguson’s side only advanced as one of those aforementioned best second-place teams from their group, behind a Bayern Munich team who they would, coincidentally, go on to dramatically beat in the final.
1999: Second group stage addition
There would be another bumper change at the turn of the century with the 1999/2000 tournament expanded back to 32 teams – now including some teams finishing third and fourth domestically who were invited to the party.
With teams now being divided into eight groups of four, the top two would then advance to a gruelling second group stage. Comprising 16 teams in four groups of four, the top two here then moved on to the quarter-finals.
2003: Last 16 remains the perfect formula for years
This would remain in place for three seasons until UEFA scrapped the extra group stage in favour of a round of 16 in 2003/04, made up simply of the top two from each of the eight groups once more.
This format would go unchanged for 21 seasons until the announcement of the most recent changes for the coming season…
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