The Group Stage of the Champions League is set to be removed from the 2024/25 season, as confirmed by UEFA. In two years, the groups will be replaced by one big league table.
The number of teams participating in the competition will also increase from 32 to 36. And, every team will be playing 10 games in the new league system, which is being called the Swiss model. 5 of the matches will be at home and 5 will be away.
Champions League announces new format
The top 8 teams in the table will qualify for the Round of 16 automatically, and the teams in 9th to 24th place will have to play a two-legged qualifier to secure their place in the knockout stage.
Overall, there will be 100 additional games for the fans to enjoy, and four more games for teams to play in the initial phase of the Champions League.
Instead of separating the teams competing into different groups, the league system now opens up the possibility of many more opportunities. Since the number of teams is also being increased, it is an improvement on the current model.
And while it is identical to the kind of tournament that the European Super League was trying to be, teams can be removed from the competition if they don’t do well in their league. This is something that the Super League didn’t consider at all. As a result, it can be considered a fairer version of the tournament that the breakaway league was trying to be.
