We explain the new format of the main European Cup

FOOTBALL – Lille travel to Lisbon this Tuesday, September 17, PSG host Girona the next day, Barcelona hosted in Monaco and an improbable duel between Stade Brestois and the Austrians of Sturm Graz. This is the program of the French clubs for the first day of the Champions League 2024-2025 vintage. A totally shaken up competition (broadcast in its entirety on Canal+), and which will offer a gargantuan menu this year.

Because by qualifying 36 teams, by imagining an asymmetrical championship and by adding round of 16 matches to an already more than packed calendar, UEFA has above all imagined this new version of the main European Cup as a means of scheduling ever more football.

Eight team matches until the end of January

This means that instead of the usual six matches in the group stage (three home and away duels and a standings that can be read at the start of winter), the teams involved will this year play eight matches in the first round – four at home and as many away – against different opponents each time.

Let’s take the example of Paris Saint-Germain: after hosting the Spanish team from Girona, the Luis Enrique players will continue at Arsenal, against PSV Eindhoven, the reception of Atletico Madrid, trips to Bayern Munich and Salzburg, a clash against Manchester City and a final trip to Stuttgart. All until January 29, 2025.

Thanks to a draw concocted by a computer, each of the clubs involved will be entitled to more or less the same treatment, namely clashes against monuments of continental football as well as more open matches against teams not used to these elite contests, like Bologna, Sparta Prague or Aston Villa (who lifted the trophy in 1982 before disappearing from the C1 for 40 years).

Round of 16 before a return to the great classic

All of this will ultimately result in a large ranking of the 36 participants. With significant consequences.

• The top eight of this curious championship will qualify directly (with home advantage) for the round of 16.
• The teams ranked 9 to 24 will have to go through the round of 16. In detail, the 9th will face the 24th, the 10th the 23rd and so on, with each time the highest ranked team receiving the return match. This is to qualify for the next round and therefore join the top eight.
• Teams ranked between 25th and 36th will be eliminated from all European competition and will no longer be transferred to another event as was the case until now.

At this stage of the round of 16, the Champions League will resume its usual course. With the only change being that the first eight of the championship phase will be organized according to a seeding system and that it will therefore be impossible for the first and second to cross paths before the final. This year, it will take place in Munich, on May 31, 2025.

But in the meantime, here it is already the complete calendar of French clubs :

• Paris Saint-Germain : Girona (at home) [D]September 18), Arsenal (away [E]October 1), PSV Eindhoven (D, October 22), Atletico Madrid (D, November 6), Bayern Munich (E, November 26), RB Salzburg (E, December 10), Manchester City (D, January 22) and VFB Stuttgart (E, January 29).
• AS Monaco : FC Barcelona (D, September 19), Dinamo Zagreb (E, October 2), Red Star Belgrade (D, October 22), Bologna FC (E, November 5), Benfica (D, November 27), Arsenal (E, December 11), Aston Villa (D, January 21), Inter Milan (E, January 29).
• Brest stadium : Sturm Graz (D, September 19), RB Salzburg (E, October 1), Bayer Leverkusen (D, October 23), Sparta Prague (E, November 6), FC Barcelona (D, November 26), PSV Eindhoven (D, December 10), Shakhtar Donetsk (E, January 22) and Real Madrid (D, January 29).
• Lille OSC : Sporting Portugal (E, September 17), Real Madrid (D, October 2), Atletico Madrid (E, October 23), Juventus Turin (D, November 5), Bologna FC (E, November 27), Sturm Graz (D, December 11), Liverpool FC (E, January 21) and Feyenoord Rotterdam (D, January 29).

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