7 things Celtic MUST know about Champions League revolution – exclusive weeks, tiebreakers and NO safety net

It's the last time for a while that a Scottish team will go straight into the Champions League proper, but after being crowned champions on Wednesday, Celtic are guaranteed at least one crack at the shiny new format.

Rivals Rangers may join them if they can come through qualifying but Brendan Rodgers and his side can start preparing for the revamped competition which will see the group stage scrapped altogether for a new league phase that will see 36 of Europe's best all lumped in to one mammoth division - separated only by the fixture generator. The Swiss Model, they call it.

It's all a little confusing but at a conference broadcast from Nyon on Thursday, UEFA officials provided the most detailed explanation yet for how the new format will work in practice. We learned just how they plan to organise the fixtures, what each position in the table means, and how they're aiming to maximise 'interconnectivity' to eradicate dead rubber games for good. There's plenty to unpack and Record Sport has everything you need to know.

How does the league phase work?

Each competition will now be a straight 36-team league rather than divided into groups. But, with that many teams involved, everyone can't play everyone.

The 36 teams will be split into four pots of nine. And every team will play one team from each pot at home, and one team from each pot away.

In effect this means that teams will end up with eight completely different fixtures, rather than playing the same three teams home and away. That's part of UEFA's plan to diversify the fixtures and increase the number of 'big' games, while also eradicating the number of 'dead matches' - more on that later.

The dates for the league phase are below.

• Matchday 1: 17–19 September 2024

• Matchday 2: 1/2 October 2024

• Matchday 3: 22/23 October 2024

• Matchday 4: 5/6 November 2024

• Matchday 5: 26/27 November 2024

• Matchday 6: 10/11 December 2024

• Matchday 7: 21/22 January 2025

• Matchday 8: 29 January 2025

How do the knockout stages work?

The teams who finish in the top eight of the league phase go straight through to the last 16. The teams who finish 9-24 will go into a playoff where they will battle it out to join them, with the sides placed 9-17 at home for the second legs. The rest are eliminated.

• 1-8 -Through to last 16

• 9-17 - Playoff round (home for second leg)

• 17-24 - Playoff round (away for second leg)

• 24-36 - eliminated

From the last 16, the Champions League will return to its normal format; straight, two-leg ties all the way up to a one-off final. The knockout stage dates, up to the final in Munich, are below.

• Knockout round play-offs: 11/12 & 18/19 February 2025

• Round of 16: 4/5 & 11/12 March 2025

• Quarter-finals: 8/9 & 15/16 April 2025

• Semi-finals: 29/30 April & 6/7 May 2025

• Final: 31 May 2025

No more crossover

Up until now, teams who finished third in their Champions League group had the fallback of a Europa League place, but from next season, that will no longer be the case. The sides who finish in the bottom quarter are out with no second chances. That will be the same for the Europa League into the Conference League - once you're out, you're out.

'Exclusive weeks'

Another new crossover is the introduction of 'exclusive weeks' for each UEFA competition. The idea there is to give each of the Champions League, the Europa League, and the Conference League a round of fixtures where there is no competition from other tournaments.

The Champions League and Europa Leagues will have their respective first round of fixtures to themselves, as shown in the UEFA diagram below. There's also the added bit of spice that on each of the final matchdays, every single fixture will be played at once. 16 Champions League games at once. Should be fun!

Interconnectivity

UEFA officials have been keen to stress that this version of the Champions League will be more interconnected than ever before. And they hope it will eliminate 'dead matches' later on in the process - entire rounds of fixtures where there is nothing to play for. That is demonstrated (rather confusingly) in the below diagram that shows how teams' positions could change over the course of the final day alone.

In summary, they don't want a repeat of Man City's group from this season, where none of the teams had anything to play for on the final day. In theory, virtually every fixture should have something riding on it, whether that's one team's complete elimination or another's progress straight through to the round of 16.

Tiebreakers

With 36 teams in the competition and each team only facing eight of them in the league phase, head-to-head would have been a headache to use as a tiebreaker. So UEFA have pivoted back to goal difference as the primary decider going forward.

Interestingly, head-to-head doesn't come into it at all. It's goal difference; goals scored; fewest goals conceded; and then a last criteria which involves calculating the 'difficulty' of each team's respective matches, based on the points accrued by their opponents. In the highly unlikely event that it's still tied after all that, then club coefficient will be used to break the deadlock. So, sadly, no dramatic one-off playoffs.

...so when is the draw?

The draw for the league phase takes place on August 29, 2024. Teams will find out then exactly who they are facing, when they are facing them, and which games will be home and away. Should Celtic make it through to the knockout round playoffs by finishing 9th-24th, they will find out their opponents in late January. The draw for the round of 16 - the top eight teams from the league phase, and the eight playoff winners - then takes place after the playoffs are concluded.

• League phase draw: 29 August 2024

• Knockout round play-off draw: 31 January 2025

• Round of 16, quarter-final, semi-final draw: 21 February 2025