UEFA, the European football body, announced this Monday an overhaul of the main women’s competition, the current organization of which has sometimes raised questions.
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European women’s football will experience a small revolution from 2025. UEFA announced this Monday a complete overhaul of continental club competitions, with a new formula for the Champions League, and the creation of a new event, such as of C2 close to the Europa League men’s version. This reform will more broadly see the formats of men’s and women’s competitions come together, with the new version of the C1 which will see the light of day during the 2024-2025 season.
18 clubs will now take part in the Women’s Champions League, in a single pool, as will be the case for the men’s editions from next season. Each team will play six matches, three at home, three away. The posters will be determined by a draw with teams grouped into three level hats. Each team will then face two teams from each of these hats. The four best teams from this revisited group stage will be directly qualified for the quarter-finals, those ranked between 5e and the 12e place will play a round of 16.
“This change in format means that, without increasing the number of matches at this stage, the top teams will face each other more often and earlier, and that all teams will have more competitive matches and a wide variety of opponents“, UEFA said in a press release.
Towards a second direct qualifying place for French clubs
Another major change for this Champions League, particularly for French clubs, the two best nations in the UEFA coefficient will benefit from two directly qualifying places instead of one until now. This new rule could benefit French teams, since France is currently at the top of this UEFA coefficient ranking. This could have allowed Paris Saint-Germain to avoid a preliminary round like this season, an organization which has been the target of numerous criticisms. Manchester United coach Marc Skinner described it as “demented” the current system, after the elimination of its players against PSG this season before the group stage.
This “new look” Champions League from 2025 will be accompanied by the creation of a second European Cup, announced UEFA, “in a knockout format“. Teams eliminated prematurely in the group stages would notably be transferred to this competition, as is the case for the third places in the men’s Champions League groups, transferred to the Europa League.