UEFA decided a few years ago that the Champions League had to have a successful format after observing that the final group stage matches in the current format were losing interest because everything was already decided. In the new format, any match in the preliminary phase can have an influence on the rest of the teams in terms of what they will receive financially: it will not be the same to finish third or fourth in the group. This is one of the novelties of the new competition, which will increase from 32 to 36 participants and will distribute financially almost 20% more than last season.

In total, UEFA will distribute 2,467 million euros in the Champions League, 565 million euros in the Europa League and 285 million euros in the Conference League. This is 400 million euros more in the Champions League than last season, which distributed 2022 million, about 100 million more in the Europa League and 50 more than in the Conference League. A notable increase in the new commitment to offer more economic attractions to its participants (and to put away the ‘ghosts’ of the emergence of other competitions…).

In the Champions League, earnings will be divided according to three criteria: a first initial fee of 670 million, a competition performance fee of 914 million and a final value fee of 853 million.

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The first instalment will be split between the clubs that qualify for the finals, with the group teams receiving €18.62 million each and victory paid at €2.1 million, €700,000 for a draw. The new format includes a league ranking prize, with the worst team receiving €275,000 and the champion €9.9 million. 1 to 9 will receive an additional €2 million and 9 to 16 will receive €1 million.

The knockout phase will start with a preliminary phase, played by the teams that qualify from 9 to 24. The teams that get through this phase will receive an additional 11 million euros, which will be 12.5 million euros if they go on to the quarter-finals, 15 million euros for the semi-finals and 18.5 million euros for the two finalists. The Champions League champion is assured of a minimum income of 86 million euros for getting through the knockout stages, to which must be added the market pool, money that is distributed by league to the clubs in each country.

FORMAT

In the new format there will no longer be groups as such, nor round-robin matches. Each team will have four home and four away matches. The draw will be made on Thursday 29 August at 18:00 at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

One of the big changes is that the number of teams will be increased from 32 to 36. The ranking during the year is decisive when it comes to the subsequent play-offs. The top eight qualify for the last 16, while ninth to 16th place will play the 17th to 24th placed teams in a play-off for a place in the last 16.