All participants of the main stage of the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 season have been announced. The last four teams to qualify for the main round of the tournament through the qualification play-offs were Croatian “Dinamo” (Zagreb), French “Lille”, Slovakian “Slovan” and Serbian “Red Star”.
The draw for the tournament will be held on August 29, and the matches of the main stage will begin on September 17. The teams will be allocated to four draw baskets.
The first “basket” in the seeding will include “Real”, “Barcelona”, “Manchester City”, “Liverpool”, “Bayern”, “Borussia” (Dortmund), “Leipzig”, “PSG” and “Inter”.
The second “basket” consisted of “Bayer”, “Atletico”, “Atalanta”, “Juventus”, “Milan”, “Benfica”, “Arsenal”, “Brugge” and “Shakhtar”.
The third basket includes “Feyenoord”, PSV, “Sporting”, “Salzburg”, “Lille”, “Dinamo” (Zagreb), “Crvena Zvezda”, “Young Boys” and “Celtic”.
In fourth – “Slovan”, “Monaco”, “Brest”, “Sparta”, “Aston Villa”, “Bologna”, “Girona”, “Stuttgart” and “Sturm”.
It is important to note that the format of the Champions League in the new season will undergo significant changes. Instead of the traditional group stage, a so-called general stage will be introduced, in which 36 teams will take part instead of the previous 32. Each team will play eight matches against different opponents, two against teams from each basket.
As a result of the general stage, a unified standings will be formed. The first eight teams will directly qualify for the 1/8 finals, while clubs from 9th to 24th place will play for the remaining playoff berths in the knockout matches.
A similar format will also be used in the Europa League and Conference League in the 2024/25 season. The teams will also play eight matches each in the Europa League general stage and six matches each in the Conference League general stage.
