The European Football Association (UEFA) approved during its General Assembly (Congress) meeting, today, Thursday, a change to the current system for the group stage in the Champions League, which has continued for two decades.

The most important and strongest club-level tournament in Europe is scheduled to move to rely on the league system, starting next season.

The tournament was previously known as the European Champions League Club Cup, as it was held in a knockout system of two round-trip matches.

The group stage came to light for the first time in the 1991/1992 season, when the eight clubs qualifying from the round of 16 in the tournament were divided into two groups, with 4 teams in each group, before the name of the tournament was later changed to the European Champions League.< /p>

The competition underwent several other changes until the current system was adopted in the 2003/2004 season, which ends this season, by distributing the 32 clubs participating in the tournament into 8 groups, with 4 clubs in each group, with the winner and runner-up of each group qualifying. To the knockout rounds.

Real Madrid of Spain was the only club that participated in all editions of the tournament according to this system, and maintained its seat in the knockout stage during it.

Next season, the number of participants in the Champions League will be increased to include 36 teams, as it will be changed to a league system.

Each team is scheduled to play 8 matches, two more than the number of matches that were played according to the old system, and will play 4 matches at home and 4 away from home.

The teams will be classified into 4 levels based on the European Football Association (UEFA) standard, and each team will play with other teams from all four levels.

The holders of the first eight places advance directly to the round of 16, while the clubs in positions nine to 24 play a new qualifying round, to determine the remaining eight clubs who qualify for this round.

UEFA also agreed to change the format of the European League and European Conference League, starting from the 2024/2025 season, as both competitions will include 36 teams.