All eyes will be on the French principality tomorrow as each of the 32 teams qualified for the Champions League find out the names of their group stage opponents.
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The record 11-time European Cup victor, Real Madrid, has never failed to make it beyond the group stage and this season has its sights on becoming the first club to win back-to-back Champions League titles.
Only Russia’s Rostov – also making its debut in Europe’s top club competition after beating Ajax in the playoffs on Wednesday – is ranked lower than Leicester, which is now No. 99 in UEFA’s standings.
Sergio Ramos of Real Madrid with Champions League trophy.
So we could have a North London derby in the Champions League?
A LEADING contender for the UEFA presidency has warned a European super league would see a “war” break out.
In the hours before the group-stage draw on Thursday, a series of meetings with clubs and UEFA executive committee members in Monaco is expected to agree changes to entry slots for the 2018-2021 seasons.
Monaco, a quarterfinalist two seasons ago, stands out in the fourth-seeded pot which also includes former European Cup victor Celtic and Legia Warsaw, returning for the first time since reaching the quarterfinals in 1996.
Tottenham Hotspur could face a hard group as they are in pot 3 – which means they will definitely draw one of the six-non English teams from pot 2 and a seeded team.
Spain has four teams in the draw, including Europa League victor Sevilla.
Spain, England and Germany would also benefit by ending the risk of its fourth-placed club losing in the playoff round each August.
Rostov, ranked No. 146 by UEFA at the start of the competition, and CSKA will be kept apart from Dynamo Kiev, which is in the pot of No. 3 seeds. Russian and Ukrainian teams also can not play each other after a UEFA ruling based on the political climate between the two nations.
Each team in Thursday’s draw will get a basic fee of 12.7 million euros ($14.3 million) from UEFA, with more to be earned from results bonuses and advancing through the knockout rounds.
The final, at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, does not take place until June 3, the second latest date in the calendar for 60 years.
Pot 1 is made up of the champions from last season’s top seven leagues, as determined by the UEFA coefficient.
The same will be true with Manchester City and Arsenal in Pot 2 with Leicester and Tottenham, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen with Bayern Munich, etc.
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Pot 3: Dynamo Kiev, Tottenham Hotspur, Lyon, PSV Eindhoven, Sporting Lisbon, Club Brugge, Basel, Borussia Moenchengladbach.
