The qualifying play-off final, which will be played tonight and tomorrow, will complete the list of participants in the Champions League for the new season, the first according to the changed rules and format.
From this season, 36 teams will play in the Champions League, four more than in all previous seasons.
For everyone, the new format will be an unknown and at first it seems like a very complicated matter.
Each team will play eight matches in the group stage and the top eight teams will qualify for the final stage, while the teams ranked from 9th to 24th place will play in the play-off round- it.
How will the new Champions League draw work?
Most importantly, the old manual pull system will be a thing of the past. Instead of manual work, the computer will draw matches in the Champions League.
The participants will be divided into four groups of nine teams each, after which an artificial intelligence computer will choose their eight rivals.
The computer is programmed to include various variables, including the ability to prevent teams from the same country from facing each other in the group stage.
The new type of AI-powered matchmaking will take 35 minutes, which is much shorter than the time it would take to manually draw couples – roughly four hours.
UEFA is confident that the draw is safe from any cyber attack, which is a new problem to deal with compared to when it was drawn manually.
On Thursday at 18:00 in Monte Carlo, the draw will be made for the group stage of the Champions League. /Football Match Up/
