On this site you will find everything about the Premiership, La liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Uefa Champions league.
See below for a general description of the format of the Champions League.
Champions League
The Champions League has 32 teams in the group stage, and is preceded by four qualifying stages. The last qualifying round is also called the play-off round. The champions of all countries enter the Champions League, but high ranked countries can send up to 4 teams. Some teams of high ranked countries are directly qualified for the group stage, while others have to play qualifying rounds. See wikipedia for more general info.| CHAMPIONS LEAGUE | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1st Qualifying Round | July | 6 champions from countries ranked 48 or lower |
| 2nd Qualifying Round | July | involving 34 teams: 3 winners from 1st qualifying round 31 champions from countries ranked 16-47 |
| 3rd Qualifying Round | Jul-Aug | involving 30 teams split in two sections: Champions section with 20 teams 17 winners from 2nd qualifying round 3 champions from countries ranked 13-15 Non-Champions section with 10 teams 9 second-placed teams from countries ranked 7-15 1 third-placed team from country ranked 6 |
| 4th Qualifying Round (play-off round) | August | involving 20 teams split in two sections: Champions section with 10 teams 10 winners from 3rd qualifying round Non-Champions section with 10 teams 5 winners from 3rd qualifying round 2 third-placed teams from countries ranked 4-5 3 fourth-placed teams from countries ranked 1-3 |
| Group Stage | Sep-Dec | involving 8 groups of 4 teams each: 10 winners from 4th qualifying round 12 champions from countries ranked 1-12 6 second-placed teams from countries ranked 1-6 3 third-placed teams from countries ranked 1-3 1 defending cup holder |
| Round 2 | Feb/Mar | involving 16 teams: 8 group winners from the group stage 8 group runners-up from the group stage |
| Final stage | Mar-May | involving 8 teams: 8 winners of the second round play the quarter finals, the semi finals, and the final |
Losing teams of the 3rd qualifying round enter the 4th qualifying round of the Europa League, while losing teams of the 4th qualifying round enter the group stage of the Europa League, and third-placed teams from the group stage enter the round of 32 in the Europa League.
The title-holder always qualifies directly for the group stage of the Champions League. If the title holder already qualified for European football the total number of teams of that association does not change. The maximum number of teams of one association in the group stage of the Champions League is four. If more teams qualify the last-placed team for the Champions League of that association has to take part in the Europa League.
If the title holder already qualified for the group stage of the Champions League, the champion of the 13th country on the country ranking list will gain direct access to the group stage, the champion of the 16th country on the country ranking list will gain direct access to the 3rd qualifying round, and the champions of the 48th and 49th country on the country ranking list will gain direct access to the 2nd qualifying round. Similar changes (with priority to champions) are made if the cup holder already qualified for one of the qualification rounds.
If in the group stage of the Champions League two or more teams finish equal on points after all the group matches have been played, the following criteria are applied to determine the group rankings:
- Higher number of points obtained in the matches between the teams in question
- Superior goal difference from the matches between the teams in question
- Higher number of goals scored in the matches between the teams in question
- Higher number of goals scored away from home in the matches between the teams in question
- If two teams still have an equal ranking, the above criteria 1-4 are reapplied to determine the final ranking of the two teams. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, the criteria 6-8 below apply
- Superior goal difference from all group matches played
- Higher number of goals scored
- Coefficient points accumulated by the club in question, as well as its association, over the previous five seasons (Team Ranking)
