Football editor at Footgoal, covering league formats, stats and stadium guides.
Since the 2024-25 season, the UEFA Champions League no longer has eight groups of four. Instead, 36 clubs play in a single league phase, each facing 8 different opponents drawn from four seeding pots, before a new knockout play-off round decides who joins the top eight in the round of 16.
This short deck explains the new format step by step: how the pot draw works, what each finishing position in the 36-team table means, how the knockout rounds lead to the final, and why UEFA made the change.
Follow the live table, fixtures and results on the Footgoal Champions League page, and read the full guide to how the new Champions League format works on Footgoal.