36 teams, long first stage, a legal threat, how and why Champions League draw would be different this season | Football News

The Champions League expands from 32 to 36 teams this season, forcing inevitable structural tweaks. The group stage ceases to ex, and instead teams tussle in a partial reproduction of the Swiss model often seen in chess tournaments. Understandably, there is excitement as well as cynicism, besides a threat of legal sanctions Chilean sports consultant Leandro Shara for the “unauthorised and unfair use” of the format. The draw ceremony, from Thursday night in Monaco, would set the ball rolling for the season of intrigue, and potentially mouthwatering encounters.
How does the new format work?
The format has been used in football before, most notably in the CONCACAF Nations League qualifying competition. The 36 teams will be divided into four pots of nine teams with each side playing two teams from each pot, one at home and one away. The top eight clubs qualify directly to the Round of 16. The teams ranked ninth to 24th will have to take part in play-off matches, from where eight teams join the top eight. The clubs that are ranked 17th to 24th after the play-off stages will be eliminated from all European competitions, which means there will be no place for them in the Europa League as well as the Conference League. From there on, it will revert to its familiar format.
What are the changes in the draw ceremony?
The computer will decide the draw, instead of the names being picked from glass bowls manually, as this could be a long and tedious process (which could consume four hours). It will take around 35 minutes, the same as the manual draws. All teams will be manually drawn with a real ball on stage. An automated software, developed in the UK, will pick eight teams randomly, which will be shown on the screen. It also decides the home and away fixtures. The draw will start with pot 1, which includes the reigning champions and strongest clubs. Fearing cyber threats, the UEFA has bolstered the security, has installed two backup software systems and would be audited accountancy firm Ernst and Young.
What are the regulations?
Two clubs from the same domestic league can’t face each other in the initial draw, while every club can only face a maximum of two teams from the same nation. This opens the door for huge matches in the early stages of the tournament where Real Madrid can face opponents like Bayern Munich and Manchester City in the league stage itself. While Barcelona are also in the same pot, Real can’t face them due to the two teams playing in the same league.
How were the extra four teams decided?
Out of the four places, two spots went to countries that had the best performance in the European club competitions last season. Italy’s Bologna and Germany’s Borussia Dortmund took two places, who both finished fifth in their respective leagues. The third spot went to France’s Brest due to their league being ranked fifth in the coefficients because of Ligue 1 clubs’ performances in the last five years in the UEFA competitions. The fourth will be awarded to a domestic champion extending from four to five the number of clubs qualifying through the Champions path of the competition’s qualifying process, which will cons of four qualifying rounds, according to UEFA.
Does more teams mean more games?
The initial blueprint entailed a bloated tournament, a steep rise from 125 to 225 games. But after stiff resance from several clubs, the new format was drawn. Resultantly, the number of matches would be 189, with a couple of extra game-weeks required. The league phase would run into the end of January instead of mid December and there could be weeks exclusively for European football. There would be games on Thursday too.

What is the legal threat?
It’s a hybrid version of the Swiss format deployed in chess. Shara claims that it was his invention and he had made a presentation to the UEFA “a dozen times” in the last decade. He had demanded the UEFA to let him and three other colleagues of his to speak to the media about the format during the ceremony, apart from the European football governing body to forge a commercial agreement with his firm MatchVision. If they don’t relent, “a lawsuit may be commenced against UEFA and the competitions may be jeopardised in one or more countries where UEFA members associations reside”.