Champions League 2024/2025: start and end dates, group stage draw date, qualified teams and more

The Champions League, the competition that all European clubs dream of playing in, but there are only a few who finally manage to obtain a ticket to play in the highest football competition at club level.

The 2023/24 edition has not yet finished, there is still the grand final that will be played on June 1 and will determine who the champion is, but there is already a lot of talk about the 2024/25 Champions League. And as the national leagues approach their end, the places are being defined, and the next edition also debuts a new format.

Below let’s look at the details and key dates of the 2024/25 Champions League.

The 2024/25 Champions League will begin next July 9, 2024 with the qualifiers of the first qualifying round, which will be played in two games, and which give access to the league phase. The final will be played on May 31, 2025 at the Allianz Arena stadium in Munich, Germany.

With the new format that will be released next edition, the group stage as we know it disappears, and in its place an eight-day league stage will be played. The draw for this phase will be held on August 29, 2024, just one day after the play-off round ends and the 36 teams that will enter this phase are definitively known.

More news about the Champions League

To carry out the draw for the league phase, the 32 teams will be distributed into four pots (pot 1, pot 2, pot 3 and pot 4) depending on the coefficient of each team in the UEFA ranking.

Therefore, in the first pot there will be the champion of the 2023/24 edition and the eight teams with the highest coefficient, instead of the league champions, as was usual in recent years.

As the season nears its end, the Champions places are being defined in the different European leagues. Some teams access directly to the league phase, while others will have to overcome the previous qualifying rounds. At the moment, there are 23 qualified teams.

Until the classified teams are known, the exact formation of each of the four pots will not be known. At the moment, this is the formation of the bass drums.

Drum 1: Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, PSG, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, Leipzig

Drum 2: Atlético de Madrid, Juventus, Arsenal

Drum 3:

Drum 4:

* The rest of the qualified teams will have to wait to be assigned to the pots based on the UEFA coefficient as more teams qualify.

First qualifying round: outbound July 9 and 10 and return July 16 and 17

Second qualifying roundion: outbound July 23 and 24 and return July 30 and 31

Third qualifying round: outbound August 6 and 7 and return August 13

Playoff round: outbound August 20 and 21 and return August 27 and 28

League phase: 17 and September 19, October 1 and 2, October 22 and 23, November 5 and 6, November 26 and 27, December 10 and 11, January 21 and 22, and January 29

Play-offs: outbound February 11 and 12 and return February 18 and 19

Round of 16: outbound March 4 and 5 and return March 11 and 12

Quarter finals: outbound April 8 and 9 and return April 15 and 16

Semifinals: outbound 29 and April 30 and return May 6 and 7

Final: may 31