The upcoming Champions League will feature a complex new format, prompting UEFA to resort to computerized draws due to the intricate nature of the setup. The competition will expand to 36 teams next season, with each team facing eight opponents – four home and four away – in the league phase. Following these fixtures, the top eight teams advance directly to the round of 16, while the remaining 16 teams compete in playoffs to complete the knockout stage lineup. Despite UEFA’s belief that this format will bring more excitement, explaining its complexities poses a challenge.

In the initial draw for the league phase, teams will be placed into four pots based on their UEFA ranking. Unlike the current system, teams will face opponents from their own pot, with one match at home and one away, as well as two opponents from each of the other pots. Additional considerations, such as teams from the same country avoiding each other, add further layers of complexity to the draw process.

Trials revealed that a manual draw could take up to four hours, leading UEFA to opt for computerized assistance. Only the selection of an initial team from pot one will be done manually, with a computer then determining their opponents and match locations. UEFA assures that the process will be secure and audited by Ernst and Young to ensure fairness.

Further changes include tennis-style seeding in the knockout stages, where the first eight teams will be seeded based on their league phase performance. This prevents top-ranked teams from facing each other until later stages, similar to seeding in tennis tournaments. Clubs will have the opportunity to plan their path to the final following the last-16 draw.