Club in the Champions League: here's what you need to know

Next season, Club will once again enter the highest possible stage: the Champions League. Familiar territory for Blauw-Zwart, as it will be its sixth campaign in seven years. But next season the Champions League will come in a new format. Here's what you need to know!

League phase with 36 teams

Perhaps the biggest change is the disappearance of the group stage as we know it now. No more group stage with say PSG, Leverkusen and Galatasaray, but 8 unique opponents in a 'League phase'. Instead of 32 teams, we will have 36 teams in the CL.

So, concretely, Club will soon play 8 matches in the League phase against 8 different opponents: two clubs from each pot. Of those 8 games, four will be played at home and four on the road. To Bayern and at home against Liverpool: it's possible.

General standings

No pools of four teams, so the standings will also look different. Like national leagues, the Champions League will work with an overall ranking that includes all 36 teams .

So after the eighth day of play, we will see an overall ranking. There we will see Club and its eight opponents, as well as all other participants. But who exactly will advance to the next round?

Position 1-8: placed directly for the eighth final.
Position 9-24: play a knockout round against each other. The winner from each game joins the top 8 in the eighth final.
Position 25-36: direct elimination.

For the losers of the knockout round and the clubs that are directly eliminated, there is no Europa League safety net . The Europa League works according to the same system, there is no Conference League safety net there either.

Pot format

Due to the new format, the pot draw has less value, because each club will face two teams from each pot anyway. But still, we give you the pot draw. The pots are composed based on the club's performance in Europe over the past five years and therefore its position in the UEFA ranking. This puts Club in pot two.

Pot 1

Manchester City
Bayern Munich
PSG
Real Madrid
Liverpool
Inter Milan
Borussia Dortmund
RB Leipzig
FC Barcelona

Pot 2

Leverkusen
Atletico Madrid
Juventus
Atalanta
Benfica
Arsenal
Club Brugge
Shakhtar Donetsk*
AC Milan

Pot 3

Feyenoord
Sporting CP
PSV
Lille*
PAOK*
Fenerbahçe*
Maccabi Tel Aviv*
Young Boys*
Celtic

Pot 4

Galatasaray*
AS Monaco
Sparta Prague*
Aston Villa
Bologna
Girona
Stuttgart
Sturm Graz
Stade Brest

* These teams are not yet certain of participation and/or pot placement (due to preliminary round matches).

Playing schedule

8 matches in the League phase, the first phase of the Champions League, which FCB is already sure of next season. Of those, four matches will be at Jan Breydel and four elsewhere in Europe.

Remarkable: Club is already sure of European "wintering," as two more League phase matches are scheduled in January.