European women’s football is set for major changes, with the Champions League switching to the ‘Swiss model’ format and the launch of a second-tier competition.
Both changes will come into effect at the start of the 2025-26 season, with the existing media and sponsorship rights agreements lasting until the end of the 2024-25 campaign.
Advertisement
The decisions were agreed at UEFA’s Executive Committee meeting in Hamburg on Saturday, ahead of the group-stage draw for next summer’s men’s European Championship.
The men’s Champions League will use the Swiss model format from next season, while there has been a second-tier men’s European competition since 1971 (introduced as the UEFA Cup, before changing its name to the Europa League in 2009).
The Swiss model format comes from chess, where it is used to rank a large number of competitors in a single table without everyone playing each other. In the UWCL, one 18-team group will replace the existing format of four groups of four. Teams will play six matches in the group stage, three at home and three away, before the knockout rounds. UEFA says further details on this and the second-tier competition will be released on Monday.
Teams will be ranked in three seeding pots based on their latest club-coefficient ranking and sides will be drawn to play two opponents from each of the three pots.
The top four teams will qualify automatically for the knockout stages, while the teams finishing from fifth to 12th will take part in a two-legged play-off to determine the other four quarter-finalists.
From the quarter-finals, the competitions will follow the usual, knockout style format.
The additional secondary tournament will be a straight knockout format and will enable certain teams who have been eliminated in the early stages of the Champions League another opportunity to compete in Europe.
UEFA states the two formats have been developed with “the aim of increasing competitiveness and maximising participation while also considering calendar constraints and player load”.
UEFA expanded the women’s Champions League ahead of the 2021-22 season, with 16 teams from at least 10 member associations competing in its group stage. The format, though, has come under criticism in recent years with only four teams qualifying automatically for the group stage (the four winners of the highest-ranked leagues) and the rest entering into a play-off system.
Advertisement
Those play-offs often see some of Europe’s biggest sides drawn against each other, leading to some being knocked out before the group stage with no secondary competition to enter. Arsenal and Wolfsburg, two of last season’s Champions League semi-finalists, were among those knocked out in the play-offs this year.
Nadine Kessler, UEFA’s managing director of women’s football, said: “Today, we look forward to another fundamental milestone for the professionalisation of European club football.
“The new format for the UEFA Women’s Champions League will reinforce the competition’s position at the pinnacle of club football and combined with the introduction of the new second competition, will further incentivise growth domestically and help us to build a strong and open European football pyramid that everyone can be proud of.”
UEFA’s adaptation of the Swiss model for the men’s tournament will see teams play eight different opponents, four at home, four away, an increase on the six group-stage fixtures in the Champions League’s existing format. The teams will all be seeded based on their recent performances in UEFA competitions to ensure each team has a fair set of fixtures. The top eight sides in that expanded 36-team group (up from 32) will qualify automatically for the knockout stage and those finishing in ninth to 24th will compete in a two-legged play-off to determine who reaches the last-16 of the competition.
(Photo: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57lGpnb2tlaHxzfJFsZmpqX2V%2FcK%2FHmqSpoZ%2BjwG64xJqerp1dqMSqv9JmpKiclaF6uLvMnqWsZw%3D%3D