Reigning champions Real Madrid will play Borussia Dortmund in the league phase of the Champions League in what will be a repeat of last season’s final after the draw for the new-look 36-team tournament was held on Thursday.

Clubs will no longer playing three teams home and away in the group phase, but will face eight different teams with four games at home and four away which were picked with the help of a computer.

With clubs facing two teams each from the four pots, the draw threw up plenty of mouth-watering fixtures with Real also set to play former champions Liverpool and AC Milan in the league phase.

Premier League champions Manchester City will face Inter Milan — a repeat of the 2023 final — Paris St Germain and Juventus while Bayern Munich are up against PSG and Barcelona among others.

Apart from Real, Liverpool also take on RB Leipzig, Bayer Leverkusen and AC Milan.

New Barcelona boss Hansi Flick has his hands full with the Spanish team set to face the two German giants — his former club Bayern Munich and Dortmund.

The draw was conducted with the help of the competition’s all-time top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo and former goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, who were both given special awards by UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin.

-Reuters

The new Champions League format this season will see more teams playing more games for more prize money.

On Thursday, UEFA makes the draw in Monaco for the match schedule of the new single-standings league phase that replaces the traditional group stage.

The first new Champions League format since 2003 promises more of almost everything that Europe’s wealthiest and most influential clubs wanted from UEFA.

There are four more places in a 36-team lineup; at least eight games each instead of six; Champions League games scheduled in January for the first time; a prize money rise of at least 25% to a minimum 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion).

There also was more evidence, at UEFA’s European Championship this summer, that constant expansion of international competitions is leaving players tired and unable to perform at their best year-round.

The new league phase in European club soccer’s marquee event will have 144 total games compared to 96 in the group stage last season.

The “key aims,” UEFA said, is to “improve competitive balance and sporting interest and in the process increase the number of meaningful matches — matches with something at stake for both sides — throughout the competition.”

In the eighth and final round, all 36 teams play on the same Jan. 29 evening to finalize the standings which will decide which eight teams advance directly to the round of 16 — and with what seedings in a tennis-like knockout bracket — as well as which 16 go into a new knockout playoff round in February, and which 12 are eliminated.

“We simulated that qualification should be possible with an average of 7.6 points, which means two victories and two draws,” said UEFA’s head of competitions strategy, Stéphane Anselmo.

Why change such a successful competition?

Money, mostly, though that’s not the only reason.

The Champions League in Europe has for the past 32 years showcased the highest quality play in world soccer. It let UEFA steer billions of euros (dollars) of prize money to clubs who pay the highest transfer fees and salaries.

Still, influential officials at the European Club Association (ECA) got bored of the group stage, saying it was too repetitive and lacked drama. They wanted more games against stronger opponents that would be more valued by broadcasters, viewers and new fans worldwide. Their leverage over UEFA was potentially launching their own breakaway competition.

The road to agreeing the format was rocky. A controversial first proposal in 2019, favoring storied clubs, was stopped by a backlash from mid-ranked clubs and domestic leagues.

There was intense turmoil sparked by the failed Super League launch in April 2021 by most of the same club officials who negotiated Champions League reform with UEFA.

Final format approval came in May 2022 — when Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus were exiled from the talks and still pursued UEFA in court — and it was broadly what the rebel Super League clubs had negotiated.

What is the new format?

Out goes the group-stage format played for 21 seasons where 32 teams were put into eight groups of four teams from a seeded draw. The top two in each group advanced to the round of 16. Groups gave each team six games from September into December, playing each rival once at home and once away.

In comes a single-standings league — 36 teams each playing eight games against eight different opponents through January.

The top eight in the standings go direct to the round of 16 in March. Teams ranked ninth to 24th go into the knockout playoffs in February. The bottom 12 teams are eliminated.

In the playoffs, teams ranked Nos. 9-16 are seeded in the draw to play second legs at home against unseeded teams Nos. 17-24.

Who gets the four extra places?

Two for countries whose teams collectively had the best record in UEFA club competitions in the previous season. That was Italy and Germany so the fifth-placed teams in Serie A and the Bundesliga qualified: Bologna and Borussia Dortmund.

The fifth-ranked national league (based on five years of results in UEFA club competitions) gets a third direct entry. That is currently France and Brest was third in Ligue 1.

An extra place goes to the qualifying rounds path for national champions from lower-ranked countries. They now play for five total qualifying places instead of four last season.

How will the draw be done?

The 36 teams come out of four seeding pots graded by each team’s “UEFA club coefficient” – its ranking by results in five years of European competitions. The top-seeded pot contains recent Champions League winners and beaten finalists, plus Leipzig and Barcelona.

When a team’s ball is drawn, its slate of eight opponents — two from each seeding pot, one to play at home and one away — will be allocated by a software program and displayed within seconds.

Match dates will be confirmed Saturday, to avoid city clashes with Europa League and Conference League games being drawn Friday in Monaco. Those lower-tier competitions also are a 36-team single-standings league. Conference League teams play just six games.

Billion-dollar prize money fund

Winning the Champions League title in 2023 earned Manchester City 135 million euros ($151 million) from UEFA. This season’s winner can reach 150 million euros ($168 million), with total competition revenue boosted by selling 189 total games instead of 125.

Commercial strategy is managed by a UEFA-ECA joint venture, and new sponsors for the Champions League include a cryptocurrency trading platform and a betting site.

Each of the 36 teams gets a basic 18.6 million euros ($20.8 million), then 2.1 million euros ($2.35 million) for each game won and 700,000 euros ($782,000) per draw.

Each place in the standings is worth more money with shares of 275,000 euros ($307,000) per place: 36 shares, or 9.9 million euros ($11 million), goes to the team finishing top in January and a single share to the last-place team.

Bonuses escalate from 11 million euros ($12.3 million) per team for advancing to each knockout round.

Another prize fund of 853 million euros ($953 million) is allocated based on teams’ historical record in UEFA competitions and the value of national and global broadcast deals.

-AP

Cristiano Ronaldo, the all-time leading goalscorer in the UEFA Champions League, will be honoured with a special award from UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin in recognition of his remarkable legacy in the world’s most prestigious competition.

The honour will be bestowed on Thursday at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco during the inaugural 2024/25 UEFA Champions League 36-team league phase draw ceremony.

Ronaldo’s achievements in Europe’s premier club competition – accomplished over the course of more than 18 years – will be recognised during the inaugural 2024/25 UEFA Champions League 36-team league phase draw ceremony, which will take place on Thursday 29 August at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco.

The former Sporting Clube de Portugal, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus forward has scored 140 Champions League goals in 183 appearances. He is 11 goals clear of Lionel Messi and 46 ahead of third-placed Robert Lewandowski at the top of the scoring charts