UEFA Champions League league phase - this is what you need to know

Compared to previous years, the UEFA Champions League has not only grown by four teams. It has also changed in shape. What used to be known as the group stage is now known as the league stage. Instead of groups with four teams, all 36 teams form on league pool. This league phase will also take longer than the previous group stages. With all teams playing eight games in the league phase, six match days will take place in autumn and two in the new year.

How they choose eight teams from thirty-six

The league phase draw on 29 August 2024 is a long-awaited event. But the new format would have made the traditional draw procedure too complicated. UEFA at one point claimed that a draw from balls in the new format would have required more than 1000 balls. Now, an UEFA executive will just draw the club's names from a bowl - but from there on, a computer software will take over and allocate the teams randomly to a schedule. Still, the teams are allocated into four pots for the draw in Monaco. The allocations are made by club coefficient (with the title holder automatically being placed in pot 1). These are the teams in the four pots:

Pot 1

Real Madrid (ESP, title holder)

Manchester City (ENG)

Bayern Munich (GER)

Paris St-Germain (FRA)

Liverpool FC (ENG)

Inter Milan (ITA)

Borussia Dortmund (GER)

RB Leipzig (GER)

FC Barcelona (ESP)

Pot 2

Bayer 04 Leverkusen (GER)

Atlético Madrid (ESP)

Atalanta Bergamo (ITA)

Juventus Turin (ITA)

SL Benfica (POR)

Arsenal FC (ENG)

Club Brugge (BEL)

Shakhtar Donezk (UKR)

AC Milan (ITA)

Pot 3

Feyenoord Rotterdam (NED)

Sporting CP (POR)

PSV Eindhoven (NED)

Celtic Glasgow (SCO)

FC Salzburg (AUT)

BSC Young Boys (SUI)

Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)

Lille OSC (FRA)

Red Star Belgrade (SRB)

Pot 4

AS Monaco (FRA)

Aston Villa (ENG)

Bologna (ITA)

Girona (ESP)

VfB Stuttgart (GER)

SK Sturm Graz (AUT)

Brest (FRA)

Sparta Prague (CZE)

Slovan Bratislava (SVK)

For the match calendar, each team gets allocated two opponents from each pot. They will play against four of those opponents at home and against for opponents away. Each home or away match will be against a team from a different pot. The draw is extremely complex as teams cannot be drawn against opponents from the same country and only two opponents out of eight can come from the same country. To work out the exact schedule, also in view of UEFA Europa League and Conference League games, UEFA will take until 31 August when the exact fixture lists will get revealed. Fans aiming to secure UEFA Champions League tickets will therefore have to be patient until then.

Chelsea FC fans arriving at Munich in May 2012 for the Champions League final

When will the UEFA Champions League matches be played?

As has been the case until now, matches will mostly take place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The first week of the new competition will be an "exclusive week" however, with matches taking place on Thursday too. Taking into account the travel needs of the various teams, this will mean a lot of action in the stadiums, but also on airports at least from Monday to Friday. This exclusive Champions League week will be played on 17, 18 and 19 September 2024. Five more match weeks in the traditional Tuesday/Wednesday format will take place until mid-December 2024. Two more weeks of league phase competition are scheduled for January 2025.

The Final of the 2024-25 Champions League has been to Munich. 31 May 2025 will be just over 13 years since the biggest single club fixture in football has been held in Munich and just under ten years since the last final in Germany (FC Barcelona beat Juventus in Berlin on 6 June 2005). The 2012 final in Munich was famous for FC Bayern Munich having a home game, but losing against Chelsea on penalties.