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.
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Record Sport revealed earlier this year the Continent’s biggest clubs were plotting a breakaway from the Champions League.
The Premier League’s new £9billion TV deal is fuelling the desire of European clubs demanding change to the Champions League.
The remaining 24 teams are distributed by their Uefa club coefficient ranking, which is why Manchester City are in Pot 2 and Tottenham in Pot 3 despite Spurs finishing above them in third last season.
The Foxes’ last venture into Europe was 16 years ago, when they were first-round losers to Red Star Belgrade in the UEFA Cup, but their return will at the very least last six matches as Ranieri attempts to match ambitions in the Champions League with a domestic title defence.
UEFA rules mean that teams from the same country can’t be drawn with one another.
The Gunners have, however, progressed out of the initial group stage for the past 16 years and will be favoured to get out of the group no matter who they draw.
Before the draw in Monaco, a series of meetings between top club delegates and UEFA should agree to change the entry slots from 2018 that would give underperforming Italy four guaranteed places.
A total of 22 teams gained direct entry to Thursday’s draw and 10 more places were allocated through the qualifying rounds which ended with the two-leg playoffs that were completed Wednesday. The big-three leagues are also set to get four places and avoid the playoff round in future. Advancing through the playoffs is worth tens of millions of euros (dollars) as UEFA will share 1.3 billion euros ($1.47 billion) among the 32 group-stage clubs this season.
Also in that group are Borussia Dortmund (110.035), Arsenal (105.256), Sevilla (95.642), Porto (92.616), Napoli (90.087), Bayer Leverkusen (89.035) and most likely Manchester City (99.256), assuming they make it through tonight.
Pot 3: Dynamo Kiev, Tottenham Hotspur, Lyon, PSV Eindhoven, Sporting Lisbon, Club Brugge, Basel, Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Pot 1 is made up of the champions from last season’s top seven leagues, as determined by the UEFA coefficient.
Pot 4: Monaco, Besiktas, Legia Warsaw, Ludogorets Razgrad, Celtic, Rostov, FC Copenhagen, Dinamo Zagreb.
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Leicester City’s Jamie Vardy, left, and Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech battle for the ball during their English Premier League soccer match at the King Power Stadium, Leicester, England, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016.
