The group stage is over, a new play-off, one more French club… What changes between the old and new formats?

The new C1 formula begins on Tuesday and will exceptionally extend until Thursday, with the first day, which will notably see Real Madrid and Lille enter the competition, while a first clash between AC Milan and Liverpool will already take place.

The new Champions League season is about to begin on Tuesday, September 17, in its new form. Exit the traditional group stage, welcome to the “league stage”, a sort of championship, and the play-offs. More teams, more matches and therefore more clashes: here is what will change between the old and the new Champions League.

Four more clubs, including a French team

This season, there will no longer be 32 but 36 teams in the Champions League. And among the four additional clubs, France is one of the beneficiaries. Indeed, an additional place now goes to the nation ranked 5th in the UEFA index, whose team must still go through a qualifying round. Having distanced the Netherlands, France has therefore secured a potential fourth participant for this season and next.

In addition to PSG, Monaco and Brest, who qualified directly, Lille, 4th in Ligue 1 last year, got through their play-off against Slava Prague and therefore joined the other three. This is a first in the history of French football. Italy and Germany also benefited from an additional place this season, respectively for Bologna (5th in Serie A) and Dortmund (5th in the Bundesliga).

Goodbye group stage, welcome to the “league stage”

The main new feature to remember is the disappearance of the usual group stage, where the four teams in each group played six games each. Now, there is a regular season, with a single ranking of the 36 teams, like a huge championship.

Each team will play eight games (four at home, four away) against eight different opponents, including two against those in their own pot. This will inevitably provide more clashes than in the old format, since the favourites placed in pot 1 will face each other from the start, like Manchester City-Inter on Wednesday.

At the end of the last day, the eight teams with the most points will qualify directly for the round of 16. The 12 worst teams will be eliminated and will not be transferred to the Europa League.

Play-offs to reach the last 16

In the middle, the teams ranked between 9th and 24th place will then face each other in play-offs. A new format which “means there will be more at stake until the final night of the league phase”UEFA said. This play-off, a new development in the middle of the competition, will be played in the form of two-legged matches to determine the teams present in the final phase.

Among the 16 teams qualified for the play-offs, the eight best-ranked teams (from 9th to 16th place in the ranking) will have the advantage of hosting the eight lowest-ranked teams (from 17th to 24th place) in the return leg. The eight winners will then face the teams that qualified directly in the final phase, the others will be eliminated.

A full and unprotected draw for the final phase

The last stage and the last new feature: the presence of a full draw for the final phase, which is similar to the current format with round-of-16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final on neutral ground. In the current format, a draw is made for the round of 16, then a new one for the quarter-finals and semi-finals.

From now on, the full draw will directly determine the final table. So each team will be able to see who their potential opponents will be in their part of the table. There will be a seeding system: the team ranked first in the standings will not be able to find themselves in the second-placed team’s part, and so on.

It should be noted that this draw will not benefit from any protection, as is the case today where two teams from the same country cannot face each other. This will now be possible, as will meeting an opponent already met in the regular season. The only exception will be geopolitical: a Ukrainian club will not be able to meet a Belarusian club for example.

Arsenal-PSG, Liverpool-Lille, Brest-Real… Dates to remember

• September 19: Monaco-Barcelona
• October 1: Arsenal-PSG
• October 2: Lille-Real Madrid
• November 26: Barcelona-Brest and Bayern-PSG
• January 21: Liverpool-Lille
• January 22: PSG-Manchester City
• January 29: Brest-Real Madrid and Inter-Monaco