Football fans around the world are awaiting, next Thursday evening, the draw for the group stage of the Champions League 2024-2025, which will result in strong confrontations in light of the changing format of the competition.

There are fears that the lottery system could be hacked and spoil the event, after the European Union announced replacing the ball system in determining competitors with computers, instead of using former stars who draw a large number of balls.

The draw for the group stage of the Champions League will be held under its new system, with the participation of 36 teams for the first time in the history of the competition, each of whom will play 8 matches in the group stage instead of 6 matches, and they will be arranged according to the league system.

The English company responsible for the new draw for the Champions League said that it is fully prepared to deal with the threat of a cyber attack from Russia, after it overcame this matter during the 2022 World Cup draw.

Officials revealed they responded to an attack during the Qatar 2022 draw, and believe they are well prepared to deal with this, with CEO David Gill saying: “We take cybersecurity incredibly seriously.”

He added: “This is clearly a sensitive issue. I am reluctant to go into detail about what we are doing but I can assure you that we have taken every possible step to make sure this is as safe as possible. We have assessed the risks and put the necessary precautions in place.”

The World Cup draw was held 5 weeks after the war between Russia and Ukraine, and the Russian national team was banned from participating in the tournament, and Russian clubs were excluded from European competitions