The fifth and sixth-placed ranked leagues will get two places each, going to the champions and runners-up, and the seventh-to-10th ranked leagues one place each.
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Juventus, Serie A winners for the last five seasons, face Sevilla, Olympique Lyonnais and Dinamo Zagreb in Group H, with the first three likely to battle for the top two places.
The top four leagues in Europe will be given four guaranteed places in the Champions League group stage from the 2018-19 season.
Under the present system, the top three leagues – now Spain, Germany and England – have three places each, while the fourth-placed teams must play off over two legs for a place in the group stage.
The competition will continue to consist of a qualifying competition played in July and August, followed by a 32-team group stage with eight groups of four teams, played from September to December.
“Last season was wonderful, but now I want more”. They will avoid the risk of losing in the playoff qualifying round and miss tens of millions of euros (dollars) in UEFA prize money.
“UEFA, the clubs, the leagues and the national associations speak with one voice on these matters”, UEFA said in a statement.
Guardiola, who also spent most of his playing career at the Catalan club, steered Barcelona to two Champions League titles as well as a number of other trophies during his time as coach from 2008-12.
The two teams play each other on October 19 in Barcelona and November 1 in Manchester.
The world’s greatest club competition has today taken a step towards a closed shop for the big markets in a move that echoes the franchise style we see in the USA.
However, the coefficient system will be revamped with clubs judged only on their own records and historical success in European competition also acknowledged.
Since 2011, Basel has helped eliminate Manchester United and Liverpool from the Champions League, as well as knocking Tottenham out of the Europa League.
When are Leicester City’s Champions League fixtures? Those look to be at risk.
A new four-pillar financial distribution system will be introduced based on starting fee, performance in the competition, individual club coefficient and market pool.
The changes came after Europe’s top club football officials met to discuss the competition’s format in Monaco on Thursday.
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By formalising the creation of a new company with the ECA, UEFA could potentially be handing over a large part of its ownership of its club competition rights to the shared ownership company.
