Some football pundits have already predicted that the winners of the Uefa Champions League tournament in 2025 will be the very same team that won it in 2024. But if Real Madrid do end up defending their title, it will be after winning a competition with a very different format.
Gone now are the familiar group stages, which saw eight groups of four sides compete to progress to the knock-out stage. In their place is a single league of 36 (four extra) clubs.
So instead of playing three home and three away matches against selected group opponents, clubs will now play four away matches and four home matches against opponents randomly selected by a computer algorithm. There will be no repeat matches between two teams.
