Manchester City’s new coach Pep Guardiola will be heading back to Barcelona after the Premier League club was pitted against his former team in the Champions League draw on Thursday.
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UEFA have announced a change in the structure of the Champions League, with Europe’s top-four leagues given four automatic group stage places.
The four highest-ranked associations in the coefficient table – now Spain, Germany, England and Italy – will no longer have to send teams into the qualifying rounds or play-off phase to reach the competition proper.
Currently, La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League are guaranteed three group spots, with a fourth possible through the qualifying round, while Serie A has two guaranteed spots and a third possible via qualification.
The Champions League and Europe League group stages will be kicking off shortly, and Adidas are again supplying the match balls for both competitions.
UEFA will significantly boost the financial distribution to clubs in European competition.
Celtic reached the group stage via a tortuous qualifying route involving ties against Lincoln Red Imps, Astana and Hapoel Be’er Sheva.
They all missed out on this season’s group stage after performing poorly in their respective leagues last season. Liechtenstein is the only UEFA member without a national league while clubs from Kosovo are not participating at present as their facilities are considered below standard. In addition, the reduction of the market pool contribution to payments means that all clubs will receive more money for sporting success and less for just being in a large television market.
The draw for the group stage of the Europa League was held this afternoon at 13:00 CET at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. Italy only have two places guaranteed (plus one play-off position).
The final details of the changes regarding the entries to the illustrious competitions will be finalised later this year.
The Danes are hoping for another strong showing at home, where the Telia Parken Stadium has become a fortress in the Champions League.
VfL Borussia Monchengladbach are up against it for the second year running after their reward for beating Young Boys 9-2 on aggregate in the play-offs was a tough draw in the Champions League group stage.
Meanwhile, Uefa has announced plans to introduce a new system for the club coefficients.
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In another concession to the clubs, UEFA said it will create a “subsidiary company which will play a strategic role in determining the future and the management of club competitions”, and the ECA will appoint half of the managing directors.
