The Champions League begins a new era this season. On September 17th, the edition of a competition with a new format will begin with 36 teams that will compete in the Champions League phase, which is the name of the new league that will be played by the best teams in Europe in an attempt to UEFA will copy the Super League. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético and Girona are the Spanish representatives in the new tournament and already know their rivals after the draw made last Thursday in Monaco.
THE Champions League This season it inaugurates an innovative format in which it says goodbye to the traditional group stage that will give rise to a league in which 36 teams will participate, four more than the 32 that were part of the competition in recent years. These clubs will play a total of eight matches (compared to six previously) in the Champions League phase, four of which will be at home and four others as visitors.
Each of the teams participating in this edition of the Champions League will face two teams from each of the four pots in which the UEFA distributed the teams according to the coefficient. The top eight of the regular league will automatically qualify for the round of 16 and the 9th to 24th will meet in the round of 16. The remaining teams will be eliminated and none will participate in the Europa League, as has happened in recent years.
The first day of the Champions League
The new Champions League It will premiere this Tuesday, September 17 with the matches between Young Boys-Aston Villa and Juventus-PSV Eindhoven starting at 6:45 p.m. From 9:00 p.m., the the real Madridcurrent champion and who will make his debut in the competition against Stuttgart at the Bernabéu.
As for the rest of the Spanish teams, on Wednesday 18th it will be Girona’s turn to travel to the Parc des Princes to face PSG while on Thursday Atlético will host Leipzig and Barcelona He will travel to the Principality to face Monaco, his rival who beat him 0-3 in August in the Joan Gamper Trophy.
One of the great novelties of this edition of this competition is that a new day will be activated for Thursday, a day that in recent years was reserved for the Europa League. This competition and the Conference League also have a new format for this 2024-2025 season.
Regarding the final of the Champions Leaguewill be played next Saturday, May 31st at the Allianz Arena in Munich. Bayern’s stadium will be the venue for the most important match of the year at club level. Bayern itself, Manchester City, Liverpool or PSG will be the rivals who will try to dethrone Real Madrid, confirmed at Wembley last June as king of the competition.
Maximum ticket price
Another big news in the new edition of the Champions League is that there will be a maximum price for tickets for visiting fans. UEFA confirmed on Monday that fans travelling to watch their team in the visiting territory will have to pay a maximum of €60 per ticket. The body that governs European football also confirmed that for the 2025-26 season, the maximum price cap for tickets for visiting fans will be lowered to €50.
“Today’s decision marks another key step in reaffirming UEFA’s commitment to improving the fan experience at matches. By introducing more fan-friendly policies, we are continuing our mission to maintain football as an inclusive sport in which fans who travel across Europe to follow their teams are valued and recognised,” UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin said in a statement released a few days ago.
The dates of the new Champions League
- Day 1: September 17-19, 2024
- Day 2: October 1-2, 2024
- Day 3: October 22-23, 2024
- Day 4: November 5-6, 2024
- Day 5: November 26-27, 2024
- Day 6: December 10-11, 2024
- Day 7: January 21-22, 2025
- 8th day (last phase of the championship): January 29, 2025
- Preliminary round first leg: February 11-12, 2025
- Preliminary round return: February 18-19, 2025
- Round of 16 first leg: March 4-5, 2025
- Round of 16 second leg: March 11-12, 2025
- Quarter-final first leg: April 8-9, 2025
- Quarter-finals return: April 15-16, 2025
- Semi-final first leg: April 29-30, 2025
- Semi-final second leg: May 6-7, 2025
- Champions Final: May 31, 2025
