The draw for the 2024/25 edition of the UEFA Champions League, eagerly awaited by sports fans worldwide, is scheduled for Thursday, August 29, 2024.
This year's draw introduces a new format, shifting from the traditional group stage to a league format, which has altered the draw process.
Here’s how the 2024 Champions League draw will be conducted, as detailed by The Athletic:
There will be four seeding pots, with each of the 36 teams automatically assigned to one. Pot one will include the nine clubs with the highest coefficient rankings, followed by the next nine highest in pot two, and so on for pots three and four.
All 36 teams will be manually drawn using physical balls on stage, starting with pot one and ending with pot four.
When a team is drawn, for example, Real Madrid, a button will be pressed on stage, and the Spanish club’s eight opponents will be randomly selected by automated software and displayed on screen. This process will continue until all 36 teams have been drawn.
In this new competition format, each team will play against two teams from each pot, making the competition more intense as top-seeded teams will face each other before the knockout stages.
UEFA has noted that if the entire draw were done manually, it would require around 1,000 balls spread across at least 36 bowls on stage.
Read the tweet below:
How the Champions League draw will be conducted differently this season:
— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) August 1, 2024
There will be four seeding pots and each of the 36 teams will automatically fall into one of the pots.
Pot one, for example, will consist of the nine clubs with the highest coefficient rankings, with the… pic.twitter.com/iOxU4qxRBS