When will the Champions League fixture dates be announced?

For the first time since 2003 when the UEFA Champions League underwent format tweak with the introduction of a 16-team knockout round instead of a second group stage, the premier European club football competition has functioned on this basis for over 20 years.

“Too many predictable group stage games with too many dead rubbers” and “can we have more money spinning games” are the claims from fans and clubs respectively with UEFA acting accordingly and introducing the new 36 team league format.

Instead of traditional format that saw all 32 teams being drawn into eight groups of four and playing six group games, the 36 qualified teams will instead take part in eight matches and go into one giant table, with goal difference the first tie-breaker for teams finishing level on points.

The new format will now see a total of 189 matches in the competition proper, capped by the final in Munich in May (2025) as opposed to the traditional 125 matches.

UEFA to confirm definitive schedule

Thursday’s draw is set to a hybrid nature and the initial step will see a ball (representing one of each nine teams in four seeded pots) being drawn from a bowl by a former player. Given that are now 36 teams who each need eight opponents drawn it would have been impractical to prepare balls for every possible eligible opponent, so each team’s opponents will now be randomly selected by a super-computer with the software ensuring that the computer calculates all future options simultaneously so that we never find ourselves at a deadlock.

At the end of the process which is expected to take roughly 90 minutes with a series of awards also to be handed out, we will have the full schedule for each of the 36 participating teams.

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However, the outcome of tonight’s draw we will know what teams will face one another but not when. That information will be announced at some point next Saturday, (31 August) as UEFA need to explore logistical and security issues that also relate to their other Europa League and Conference League, and this will include television and global broadcast demands.

UEFA will also want to spread out key games to ensure that each match week throws up a series of compelling fixtures.