Fully automated! This will be the draw for the new Champions League phase

For the first time in the UEFA Champions League draws, the clubs participating in the so-called 'league phase' will know their rivals in a fully automated way. A software will be in charge of determining the rivals of FC Barcelona and the rest of the 35 teams classified for the 'all against all' that replaces the group stage implemented since the 2003/04 season.

In this regard, Giorgio Marchetti, director of football and general secretary of UEFA, together with Tobias Hedstück, head of UEFA competitions, explained that, once the four pots of the draw have been defined, the software will choose a team at random from each pot. Once the first of the nine clubs belonging to pot 1 comes out, the computer will automatically assign its eight rivals.

This is how the software for the new Champions draw will work

After the system defines the eight rivals of the nine clubs in pot 1, they will automatically move to pot 2. Each club will face two rivals from each pot, with two established exceptions. Firstly, clubs from the same country will not be able to compete, as was the case with the previous group stage since the 2006/07 season. In addition, no team will be able to face two clubs from the same league.

In that sense, if Barça, for example, has to face Inter Milan again, none of its other seven rivals will be Italian. In the simulation carried out by UEFA to explain how the software works, Paris Saint-Germain was drawn to face Inter and Barça (pot 1), Arsenal and Leverkusen (pot 2), PSV and Sporting (pot 3), Celtic and Stuttgart (pot 4). With this, UEFA seeks greater competitiveness and put an end to speculation about the famous 'hot balls', although the risk of suffering a cyber attack generates uncertainty for all participating clubs.

Beyond being an automated draw, there will be a master of ceremony (a UEFA ambassador). The gala will take place on August 29 in Monaco and will define the fate of the 36 qualifiers for the league phase, whose calendar will extend over eight days, from September 17, 2024 to January 29, 2025. The top eight in the general table advance directly to the round of 16, with the possibility of defining their keys at home. From 9th to 24th place they will play a 'play off' in mid-February to define the other 8 that advance to the round of 16.