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From 2024–25, the Champions League expanded to 36 clubs and replaced the old group stage with a single league phase. We explain how the new format works from start to finish.
The 2024–25 season marked the beginning of a completely restructured UEFA Champions League. The format that had defined European club football for over 30 years — a group stage of four teams playing six matches followed by knockout rounds — was replaced by an expanded league phase involving all 36 competing clubs. The change is the most significant structural reform in the competition's history.
UEFA's stated rationale for the expansion was to increase the number of meaningful, high-quality matches between elite clubs. In the old group stage format, the top teams in easier groups would often be effectively through to the knockout rounds with matches to spare, leading to “dead rubber” games where the competitive stakes were minimal. A single league phase involving all clubs is designed to ensure that more matches matter for longer.
The expansion from 32 to 36 clubs also allows UEFA to distribute competition income across more countries and clubs — a factor that reflected the commercial negotiations involved in any major European competition reform.
All 36 clubs competing in the Champions League from 2024–25 are placed in a single unified league table. Rather than playing in separate groups, each club plays eight matches against eight different opponents — four at home and four away. The opponents are drawn using a seeding system designed to ensure a spread of difficulty (stronger teams face a mix of other strong and weaker opponents, and vice versa).
Points are awarded in the standard way: three for a win, one for a draw, zero for a defeat. At the end of the league phase, all 36 clubs are ranked in a single table based on points accumulated, with goal difference and goals scored as tiebreakers.
The final league phase standings determine each club's route (or otherwise) into the knockout rounds:
From the round of 16 onwards, the competition follows a traditional knockout format:
The draw for the knockout rounds is based on seeding from the league phase standings. The top 8 from the league phase are seeded and avoid each other in the round of 16 bracket, while playoff winners are unseeded.
English Premier League clubs receive up to four direct Champions League qualifying spots based on their final league position. With more matches in the league phase (eight compared to six in the old group stage), the physical demand on squads during the first half of the season has increased. Clubs with smaller or less experienced squads may find the expanded format more challenging to navigate without sacrificing domestic performance.
The additional matches also mean that Champions League weeks are more densely concentrated across September, October and November, with the league phase completing in January rather than December under the old format. This has implications for squad rotation and the management of player workloads across an already congested fixture schedule.
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