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Topics: Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Champions League, Premier League
Chris Byfield
Topics: Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Champions League, Premier League
The Champions League is set to be revamped for the 2024/25 campaign, and it could have a major impact on Premier League clubs.
Next term Europe’s premier competition will expand from 32 clubs to 36, with the traditional group stage removed.
In its place, each of the 36 clubs will play eight games, four of which will take place at home and four away.
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The teams that finish between first and eighth in the newly revamped league stage will automatically qualify for the last 16. Meanwhile, those in ninth to 24th will contest a two-legged play-off to determine the final eight teams in the last 16.
Fans will be pleased to hear the knockout stage is unchanged from the current format.
While the new format will take some getting used to, another significant change set to be implemented by UEFA could have a massive impact on Premier League clubs.
Premier League clubs could benefit from new rule
Additional slots for the new Champions League will be allocated to the two best-performing European nations over the previous season, using UEFA’s co-efficiency ranking.
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Moreover, another slot is given to the fifth-placed nation in EUFA’s ranking.
Indeed, if the new rules had been applied for this season, England and Italy would have been granted an additional Champions League place, as clubs from those national performed best in Europe during the 2022/23 season.
Therefore Liverpool would have been granted an extra Champions League spot despite having not made it into the top four last season.
However, an extra spot will be granted based on this coming season's co-efficient rankings, in time for the new format to begin.
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Given the competition for the top four at present, the rule could benefit the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle, all of whom will be doing battle for a Champions League spot.