UEFA Women’s Champions League Revamp
The UEFA Women’s Champions League is set to debut a revamped format this season, transitioning to a league-phase structure akin to that seen in the men’s tournament. Instead of organizing the participating teams into four groups of four as in previous years, this year 18 teams will be competing within a single league table.
Draw Details
The draw that will determine the fixtures for this new format is scheduled for Friday, September 19, at 11:00 a.m. UK time (12 p.m. CET, 6:00 a.m. ET, and 3:00 a.m. PST) in Nyon, Switzerland.
Fans will have the opportunity to follow the draw live on Disney+ (subscription needed) and on the ESPN UK YouTube channel, where it will be streamed. This year’s change means that instead of grouping in the traditional sense, the draw will set up matchups directly.
Competition Format
The 18 participating teams will be divided into three pots categorized by their UEFA coefficients and will engage in six matches apiece, with the system allocating two opponents from each of the pots.
In a notable shift, human involvement in the draw has been replaced by computer selection, which will dictate the sequence of fixtures after the initial team draws start from Pot 1 and conclude with Pot 3.
Qualified Teams
Prominent clubs such as Arsenal, OL Lyon, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, VfL Wolfsburg, Barcelona, Chelsea, Benfica, and Juventus have automatically qualified for this stage. Additionally, fans eager to catch all 75 matches live this season can only do so via Disney+.
Preliminary Rounds
The competition will allow for nine more teams to qualify through preliminary rounds, with matchups that include:
- Valerenga vs. Ferencvaros
- Vorskla Poltava vs. OH Leuven
- St. Pölten vs. Fortuna Hjørring
- Katowice vs. Twente
- BK Häcken vs. Atlético Madrid
- Paris FC vs. Austria Vienna
- Brann vs. Manchester United
- Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Real Madrid
- Roma vs. Sporting CP
Match Schedule
The schedule for the matches is as follows:
- Matchday 1: October 7-8
- Matchday 2: October 15-16
- Matchday 3: November 11-12
- Matchday 4: November 19-20
- Matchday 5: December 9-10
- Matchday 6: December 17
