The European competition system has been greatly changed in the new season: the expansion of 36 teams + the group stage has changed to the Swiss round[suchunfei]

The 2024/25 season Champions League will kick off in the early morning of September 18, Beijing time, after which the Europa League and European Association League events will also be gradually launched. The new season, the three European Games ushered in major reforms, including the expansion of 36 teams, the cancellation of the group stage, the adoption of the Swiss system, etc., compared with the original competition system has changed greatly, the following is to understand with Xiaobian!

【 Reform of the Champions League 】

Under the original competition system, a total of 32 teams participated in the Champions League group stage, divided into 8 groups, each group of 4 teams, each team and the remaining 3 teams in the same group for home and away games, the final group of the top two qualified for the round of 16, the third team will participate in the Europa League Cup. At the beginning of the new season, the Champions League will be expanded to 36 teams, and the group stage will be canceled, and all teams will compete for points similar to the "league", which is the so-called "Swiss round".

The Swiss system, also known as the points cycle system, its main principle is to select players with the same or close records to compete, and finally select the strongest. However, it should be noted that the new competition system of the Champions League is not completely adopted by the Swiss system, but draws on the characteristics of the Swiss system and forms a "customized version" combined with its own situation.

Under the new competition system, 36 teams will be divided into four stalls, each team will be in each stall, draw 2 teams to play, of which 1 game for home, 1 game for away, four stalls draw a total of 8 teams, that is, each team will play 4 hosts, 4 guests a total of 8 games.

In this "league" -like stage, the top eight teams in the final points will automatically qualify for the Champions League round of 16, while a total of 16 teams from 9-24 will compete for the remaining eight Champions League round of 16 places. Teams ranked 25-36 will be eliminated directly and will not continue to participate in the Europa League.

In the play-off stage, the teams ranked 9-16 will be seeded and will be drawn to determine the teams ranked 17-24. A total of two rounds of matches will be played first and then the winners will advance to the last 16, after which they will face the top eight seeded teams.

Starting from the round of 16, the Champions League will follow the previous knockout competition system, that is, the 1/8 final, the quarter-final and the semi-final are two legs, and the final is carried out in the neutral position chosen by UEFA, and the outcome is determined.

The new season of the Champions League, of which 32 places are the same as the original format, and the new 4 places will be allocated according to the following rules:

Place 1: Belongs to the team in third place in the league with fifth European points.

Quota 2: Assigned to the domestic league champions, increasing the number of teams promoted through the qualifying championship route from the previous four to five.

Quota 3-4: Awarded to the two leagues that performed best in UEFA club competitions last season. (Determined by last season's league European competition points, the coefficient is based on the total number of club coefficient points earned by each team in the league divided by the number of teams in the association.)

【 Europa League reform 】

In the new season, the Europa League was also expanded to 36 teams, of which 12 teams qualified for the main competition through domestic league results, 12 teams qualified for the main competition through the Europa League qualifying competition, 11 teams eliminated from the Champions League qualifying competition, and the main competition quota for the 23-24 Europa League champions.

In line with the Champions League group stage, the format is also changed to the Swiss round, the top 8 teams in the "league" stage advance to the last 16, the teams ranked 9-24 will play a two-leg play-off, of which 9-16 are seeded teams, and the winners of the play-off advance to the Europa League last 16. The 25-36 teams will be eliminated and will not be able to continue to participate in the UEFA League, and the European competition will end this season.

【 European Association Reform 】

The new season of the UEFA League a total of 36 places, of which the UEFA League qualifying round produced 24 places, the Europa League qualifying round of 12 eliminated teams to obtain the remaining places.

The 36 teams will be ranked according to European competition points and then divided into six pools with six teams in each pool. Each team will play against one of the teams in each bracket through the draw, with a total of 3 hosts and 3 guests. This stage of the competition also uses the Swiss round, in addition to the number of matches less than 2 games, the rest of the rules are consistent with the Champions League and Europa League.