UEFA Champions League 2024-25: Schedule, title favourites, players to watch

Europe’s top club competition returns with more teams vying for the prize in the four-month-long group stage. Al Jazeera explains what’s new.

The new-look UEFA Champions League is back for its 2024-25 season.

For the first time in its history, 36 teams will participate in Europe’s premier club competition in a format that has been given a shake-up in a bid to ensure the continent’s biggest teams face each other more often.

Here is everything you need to know about the revamped tournament:

Up until the 2023-24 season, the Champions League featured 32 teams divided into eight groups of four and the top two teams advanced to the knockouts, beginning with the round of 16.

However, the 2024-25 season will see the competition expand to 36 teams, who will play in a newly-coined “league phase” instead of groups.