The Champions League is the pinnacle of club football, famous for players walking onto the pitch as mere humans and leaving it as legends. It’s what the game is all about, as Europe’s greatest teams go head-to-head in a series of group-stage matches and knockout ties, all ending in the final at the end of the season.
The Champions League final is one of the most watched sporting events in the world, with an estimated total of 400 million people watching the event in 2023. However, to get to that stage, they must beat a series of teams which is all decided via the draw. The anticipation as the balls are picked up out of the bowls is palpable for fans, knowing their happiness in the week might well truly depend on who they face. It’s what football’s all about. It’s not just fans that look forward to it; players do as well, knowing the draw can decide if they have a high chance of leaving the pitch as legends or not.
The 2024/25 season will see a new system used for the first time in the competition’s history, with the group stage draw taking place later today. The days of 32 teams being split into eight groups of four are over, with every club now taking their place in one massive group. It’s a controversial decision, one with plenty of backlash, but money moves the world — and particularly UEFA. We have outlined everything you need to know about how the draws are made.
Draw Dates & Times
The early stage draws for the Champions League have already taken place this summer. They featured the ‘smaller European sides’, with the strength of opposition gradually increasing until the group stage. It prevents one of the smallest sides in the continent from ever playing the likes of Real Madrid in the latter stages.
With the playoffs done, which saw the likes of Galatasaray and Malmo crash out at the final hurdle, the main event can take place. Today, the 29th August, the 36 teams competing will find out who they are playing. They will have eight matches — four at home and four away.
The teams that finish from first to eighth in the league phase will automatically qualify for the Round of 16. Meanwhile, the teams from ninth to 24th will enter the Round of 32, with the upper half being seeded for it. The draw will take place on the 31st January 2025 as they aim to reach the last 16. If they do reach the Round of 16 after playing a remarkable 10 matches, they will be unseeded for the draw on the 21st February 2025, which will see them face a seeded team which finished first to eighth in the initial league phase. On the same day, the draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals will take place.
How the Group Stage Draw Works
In previous years, the Champions League draw has been done manually, with some of the best players of all time often drawing balls by hand. However, such is the complexity of the draw with 36 teams and one large league, it will be done on a computer from the 2024/25 campaign.
To determine the eight different opponents, the teams will initially be ranked in four seeding pots. Each team will then be drawn to play two opponents from each of these pots, playing one match against a team from each pot at home, and one away. The only manual aspect of the process will be choosing the team whose fixtures are to be decided.
The computer will then allocate that team’s opponents automatically from all four pots, and decide which fixtures are home and away. Naturally, there are going to be concerns from fans that this is not fair, but UEFA has insisted that its system is robust and audited by Ernst and Young.
Pots
The pots for the Champions League draw have now been revealed ahead of the draw tonight. Every club will play two sides from each pot, therefore the rankings have little impact, unlike in previous years. However, Bayern Munich – despite finishing third in the Bundesliga – are in Pot 1 due to their European coefficient, whilst Stuttgart – who finished above them – are in the lowest pot possible.
Naturally, Bayern are a better team on paper as they have some of the best players in the world, but it does feel slightly controversial to place the two sides at opposite ends of the scale. We have outlined the pots in full below:
| Champions League Pots | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| Real Madrid | Leverkusen | Feyenoord | Slovan Bratislava |
| Manchester City | Atlético de Madrid | Sporting CP (POR) | Monaco |
| Bayern Munich | Atalanta | PSV Eindhoven | Sparta Praha |
| Paris Saint-Germain | Juventus | GNK Dinamo | Aston Villa |
| Liverpool | Benfica | Salzburg | Bologna |
| Inter | Arsenal | Lille | Girona |
| Leipzig | Club Brugge | Crvena Zvezda | Stuttgart |
| Dortmund | Shakhtar Donetsk | Young Boys | Sturm Graz |
| Barcelona | AC Milan | Celtic | Brest |
How the Knockouts Draw Works
As previously mentioned, in the Round of 32, the teams that finish between 9th and 16th will be seeded in the knockout phase play-off draw, meaning they will face a team placed 17th to 24th – with the return leg at home. Whoever progresses will then be unseeded for the Round of 16 draw as they face a team who finished first to eighth in the league phase. From that point onwards, however, there is no seeding, with any team able to play anyone.
The draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals will take place on the same day as the Last 16 process, meaning teams will immediately be able to see their path to the final in Munich. The likes of Manchester City and Real Madrid, two of the most successful sides in the world, will know their route to glory by the end of February, therefore, they will be able to plan well ahead about how they want to manage their respective squads ahead of the big games.
Draw Rules
In the group stage, clubs won’t be able to draw teams from their own country, unless there are too many in one pot which would make a fixture deadlock unavoidable. This would only affect leagues with four or more clubs in the competition, but UEFA have outlined this will not be an issue for the 2024/25 campaign.
In previous years, UEFA have made sure that teams from the same national federation can also not play one another in the knockout stages until the quarter-finals. For example, Arsenal could not have faced Manchester City in the Round of 16 because they both play in the Premier League. However, due to the complexity of the seeding, this will not be the case during any stage of the knockouts, as players of Football Manager 2024 might know.
Each knockout tie will be played at both teams’ home stadium – as long as it meets UEFA requirements – whilst extra time and penalties are used if the tie is level after 180 minutes. The away rule no longer exists, which previously saw teams progress on the same number of goals if they had scored more goals away from home.
The seedings for the draws are decided in accordance with the club coefficient rankings established at the beginning of the season and with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee – which is outlined in UEFA’s regulation book. In previous years, the first seed has always comprised the titleholder, the UEFA Europa League titleholder and the best domestic champions as ranked by UEFA.
However, that’s not the case moving forward, meaning Bayer Leverkusen will not be in Pot One despite winning the Bundesliga unbeaten. In the 2024/2025 season, the nine Pot One teams are Real Madrid, Man City, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Barcelona.
Looking further back, the format and draw for the Champions League used to be drastically different. The inaugural tournament had just 16 teams competing in 1955 in four knockout rounds (first round, quarterfinals, semifinals and final). In 1960, the tournament expanded to 32 teams (adding an extra round) and kept the rest of the format the same, whilst it wasn’t until 1992 that the traditional group stage was added.
In its first year, the group stage came uniquely after the first and second round, with the winners of each group going directly into the final. It was a unique system and the opposite of what fans are expected in the modern day; Barcelona won the competition when it was used for the first time.