Champions League - PSG

[Risso]

How does the draw work?
4 into 9 doesn’t work. 

36 teams. Everybody plays 8 games, four home and four away, against 8 different teams.

[The Man With A Stick]

An added bonus to qualifying is that our U19s get to play in the UEFA Youth League, where the first six rounds of fixtures will be against the clubs we play in the Champions League.
It’ll be a great experience for the kids and an attraction when poaching/signing young players.

Wasn't that the competition UEFA brought in for CL teams only just after we tore them all to shreds in that NextGen thing about 10 years ago?

[Dave]

How does the draw work?
4 into 9 doesn’t work. 

36 teams. Everybody plays 8 games, four home and four away, against 8 different teams.

I really like this format. The fact that unlike before you end up giving a toss about all of it, not just the three other teams that you're sharing a bunker with.

So that game between Monaco and Inter or Benfica and Bologna, although we might not play against any of them they actually make a difference to us now rather than them just being a dead rubber in a completely different group.

Yes it's to create more games and make more money, but I think it'll also increase overall interest in the games.

[rougegorge]

How does the draw work?
4 into 9 doesn’t work. 

If you know and pay the right people, they can make it work.

I don’t think 4 needs to go into 9 exactly.

Each team plays 2 opponents from each pot, and in principle you can’t play teams from your own country until the knockout stage, although I don’t think it can be completely discounted where a country has 4 or more teams. The teams we play won’t necessarily play the same other teams we play.

Finish 1st to 8th and you get a bye to the last 16. Finish 9th to 24th and you go to a play off with the winners progressing to the last 16. Finish below 24th in the league table and you’re out and there is no dropping into the Europa League.

The draw for the league stage is on August 29th. Apparently the draw will be computerised as it would take far too long to do it manually.

[AV82EC]

How does the draw work?
4 into 9 doesn’t work. 

36 teams. Everybody plays 8 games, four home and four away, against 8 different teams.

I really like this format. The fact that unlike before you end up giving a toss about all of it, not just the three other teams that you're sharing a bunker with.

So that game between Monaco and Inter or Benfica and Bologna, although we might not play against any of them they actually make a difference to us now rather than them just being a dead rubber in a completely different group.

Yes it's to create more games and make more money, but I think it'll also increase overall interest in the games.

Strong agree. Also the potential to move up a gazillion places if you get a good result is great.

[Risso]

I really like this format. The fact that unlike before you end up giving a toss about all of it, not just the three other teams that you're sharing a bunker with.

So that game between Monaco and Inter or Benfica and Bologna, although we might not play against any of them they actually make a difference to us now rather than them just being a dead rubber in a completely different group.

Yes it's to create more games and make more money, but I think it'll also increase overall interest in the games.

Yep, looks like a good idea on the face of it. Obviously I'm just over the moon to be in any sort of format whatseoever, but you can see how this should lead to most games being meaningful. I'm probably missing some devious UEFA plan to rob us completely, so as ever, reserve the right to do a complete 180 at some point in the future.

[TonyD]

How does the draw work?
4 into 9 doesn’t work. 

36 teams. Everybody plays 8 games, four home and four away, against 8 different teams.

I know this.  But drawing from 4 pots to 4 groups seems there would be some groups with more from the same pot.

[Olneythelonely]

How does the draw work?
4 into 9 doesn’t work. 

36 teams. Everybody plays 8 games, four home and four away, against 8 different teams.

I know this.  But drawing from 4 pots to 4 groups seems there would be some groups with more from the same pot.

There aren’t 4 groups. There’s one big group.

[Dave]

I really like this format. The fact that unlike before you end up giving a toss about all of it, not just the three other teams that you're sharing a bunker with.

So that game between Monaco and Inter or Benfica and Bologna, although we might not play against any of them they actually make a difference to us now rather than them just being a dead rubber in a completely different group.

Yes it's to create more games and make more money, but I think it'll also increase overall interest in the games.

Yep, looks like a good idea on the face of it. Obviously I'm just over the moon to be in any sort of format whatseoever, but you can see how this should lead to most games being meaningful. I'm probably missing some devious UEFA plan to rob us completely, so as ever, reserve the right to do a complete 180 at some point in the future.

Of course, that's inevitable.

[TonyD]

How does the draw work?
4 into 9 doesn’t work. 

36 teams. Everybody plays 8 games, four home and four away, against 8 different teams.

I know this.  But drawing from 4 pots to 4 groups seems there would be some groups with more from the same pot.

There aren’t 4 groups. There’s one big group.

I thought there was 4 seeded pots of 9 teams. 
Which would mean 3 groups would have 2 from a pot = 6. And then one group would have 3 from the pot to make 9.

[Sexual Ealing]

There are no groups!

[Dave]

How does the draw work?
4 into 9 doesn’t work. 

36 teams. Everybody plays 8 games, four home and four away, against 8 different teams.

I know this.  But drawing from 4 pots to 4 groups seems there would be some groups with more from the same pot.

There aren’t 4 groups. There’s one big group.

I thought there was 4 seeded pots of 9 teams. 
Which would mean 3 groups would have 2 from a pot = 6. And then one group would have 3 from the pot to make 9.

It wouldn't. Because there aren't three groups to have two to a pot. Or another group to have three. There's one big group. With all the teams in it.

[LeeB]

Tony can't leave his swinging past behind.

[Somniloquism]

I wonder if they have considered that a lot of teams could have the same points and goal differences at the end of the "league" stage, but haven't played each other so no h2h to sort them. I wonder what the process will be then?

[Dave]

I wonder if they have considered that a lot of teams could have the same points and goal differences at the end of the "league" stage, but haven't played each other so no h2h to sort them. I wonder what the process will be then?

Play-off, winner takes all.

Two legs, Riyadh and Miami. €1,200 per ticket, payable directly to Čeferin's pension fund.