Champions League - PSG

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

From next season, 36 clubs will take part in the Champions League and they will all be in one big league table. The old (current) format saw 32 clubs divided into eight groups of four teams.

There will still be a draw (of sorts) at start of the season, but only to create the league-phase fixtures: eight games for each club, four at home and four away.

The 36 teams will be divided into four pots of nine. Pot 1 will have the titleholders of the UCL and the eight clubs with the best coefficients. That means the champions of the top domestic leagues and the UEL titleholders will no longer be prioritised for Pot 1. Pots 2 to 4 are ordered on club coefficient.

Each club will be drawn to play two teams from each pot -- one home, one away. So, unlike in the current format, a club in Pot 1 will play a game against two other clubs from Pot 1.

As a general rule, clubs from the same association will not be drawn against each other. However, to avoid deadlocking, the leagues with four or more clubs could play one match against another team from the same country.

From the final table, the top eight go direct to the round of 16. Positions nine to 24 will enter a playoff to earn the other eight places in the round of 16. Positions 25 to 36 are eliminated from Europe. There is no country protection in any of the knockout rounds, so for instance teams from the Premier League could play each other.

Unlike in previous seasons, there is no drop down of teams from the Champions League to the Europa League after the league phase. Once eliminated, your European season is over.

How will they decide the fixtures?

Controversially, it will be done by computer because UEFA has worked out that a manual draw would take up to four hours to complete and require up to 900 balls. A team will be manually drawn from Pot 1 as a ceremonial act, and a computer will decide the eight opponents.

UEFA will create four pots of nine teams. The UCL titleholders will be in Pot 1, with all other pots filled according to the five-year club coefficient.

Each team will play two teams from each pot (one home, one away) to create an eight-match fixture list of roughly equal strength.

More "big matches" are created by the teams in the top pots being drawn against each other, which wasn't possible under the current system.

For instance, the teams in Pot 1 would draw two other clubs from Pot 1, 2, 3 and 4. Teams from the same association still cannot play each other in the group stage -- apart from leagues with 4+ teams who could play one other team from their country, if the draw puts them together.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/37628341/champions-league-revamp-how-competition-work

[Cliftonville Villlain]

Lotta love on here for Fulham and rightly so. Couldn't care less what the result is tomorrow as they've deserved every pint that's come their way this week. After the game though it wouldn't do any harm to approach Eze and Olise to work alongside Watkins and Duran next season. Just saying.

[Flamingo Lane]

Lotta love on here for Fulham and rightly so. Couldn't care less what the result is tomorrow as they've deserved every pint that's come their way this week. After the game though it wouldn't do any harm to approach Eze and Olise to work alongside Watkins and Duran next season. Just saying.

Are you getting your teams mixed up?

[wince]

Had soft spot for Fulham after meeting few of their fans after they battered us back in 2012 or 13 and they were apprehensive asking for directions back to town. Plus citizen smith and fact that they are a decent club. Us losing that playoff final proper sliding doors moment

[LeeB]

It was, but I don't thin I've ever felt lower after a game than I did that day.

[VillaTim]

Is the theme tune staying the same . I sing it every time I go In the office now in front of the plastic mancs and Arsenal / Spurs fans on our floor .

[Malandro]

It was, but I don't thin I've ever felt lower after a game than I did that day.

Not a great day footballing wise, but personally a good one for me - I forced myself to go back to London.
My first time after an event that ended my career and life at that time.

I owe Risso for that. A very special guy, with a lovely family.

[Percy McCarthy]

It was, but I don't thin I've ever felt lower after a game than I did that day.

Not a great day footballing wise, but personally a good one for me - I forced myself to go back to London.
My first time after an event that ended my career and life at that time.

I owe Risso for that. A very special guy, with a lovely family.

That’s wonderful, and no surprise about Risso.

Well done both of you.

[Malandro]

It was, but I don't thin I've ever felt lower after a game than I did that day.

Not a great day footballing wise, but personally a good one for me - I forced myself to go back to London.
My first time after an event that ended my career and life at that time.

I owe Risso for that. A very special guy, with a lovely family.

That’s wonderful, and no surprise about Risso.

Well done both of you.

Cheers Percy. I think you may have had some of my crap on here at times too. H&V is a great place.
You never know where people are - the loss of Stu Griffin showed that.

[Stu]

It was, but I don't thin I've ever felt lower after a game than I did that day.

Not a great day footballing wise, but personally a good one for me - I forced myself to go back to London.
My first time after an event that ended my career and life at that time.

I owe Risso for that. A very special guy, with a lovely family.

That’s wonderful, and no surprise about Risso.

Well done both of you.

Cheers Percy. I think you may have had some of my crap on here at times too. H&V is a great place.
You never know where people are - the loss of Stu Griffin showed that.

Like

[Malandro]

It was, but I don't thin I've ever felt lower after a game than I did that day.

Not a great day footballing wise, but personally a good one for me - I forced myself to go back to London.
My first time after an event that ended my career and life at that time.

I owe Risso for that. A very special guy, with a lovely family.

That’s wonderful, and no surprise about Risso.

Well done both of you.

Cheers Percy. I think you may have had some of my crap on here at times too. H&V is a great place.
You never know where people are - the loss of Stu Griffin showed that.

Like

Bugger another one! You are on my list too Stu. Hope to catch up with you and your lovely wife next season.

[Percy McCarthy]

It was, but I don't thin I've ever felt lower after a game than I did that day.

Not a great day footballing wise, but personally a good one for me - I forced myself to go back to London.
My first time after an event that ended my career and life at that time.

I owe Risso for that. A very special guy, with a lovely family.

That’s wonderful, and no surprise about Risso.

Well done both of you.

Cheers Percy. I think you may have had some of my crap on here at times too. H&V is a great place.
You never know where people are - the loss of Stu Griffin showed that.

I’ve had a row with nearly everybody I think. It’s not that deep compared to real life mate.

[Bad English]

I should hope not. Can you imagine the scenes in the pubs? People blowing.raspberries at each other and stuff.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Like

Bugger another one! You are on my list too Stu. Hope to catch up with you and your lovely wife next season.

Congratulations, Stu. I didn't realise you'd remarried since we last met.
Who does she support?

[Stu]

It was, but I don't thin I've ever felt lower after a game than I did that day.

Not a great day footballing wise, but personally a good one for me - I forced myself to go back to London.
My first time after an event that ended my career and life at that time.

I owe Risso for that. A very special guy, with a lovely family.

That’s wonderful, and no surprise about Risso.

Well done both of you.

Cheers Percy. I think you may have had some of my crap on here at times too. H&V is a great place.
You never know where people are - the loss of Stu Griffin showed that.

Like

Bugger another one! You are on my list too Stu. Hope to catch up with you and your lovely wife next season.

Hopefully the Bartons will be open for next season!