Dhe FC Bayern and Paris St. Germain? KF Tirana, Qarabag Agdam and Sheriff Tiraspol! Even before the final in Lisbon this Sunday (9 p.m., DAZN, ZDF, Sky and in the live ticker of WELT), the new season of the Champions League had started. For Europe’s premier class, it will be another exceptional year in Corona times.
While the Champions League winner was being sought in Lisbon over the past two weeks, many small clubs on the continent were already looking for a ticket for the coming season. The qualification for 2020/21, in which no German team is involved, is in full swing – and prepares for another special season.
What are the specifics?
The Corona crisis will also accompany the 2020/21 season, not only because of the postponed start of the qualification (August 8 instead of June 23). An example: The Kosovar champion KF Drita has already retired because the club had to be in quarantine after two corona cases and could no longer compete in the qualifying round.
The European Football Union evaluated the game for the Northern Irish opponent FC Linfield, also because the tightly staggered schedule did not allow an alternative date. Uefa has yet to finally adopt the corona rules for the premier class games after qualification. A measure that could occur more often: Games in a neutral place, depending on the specifications of the national authorities.
When does the group stage start?
The eight groups of four will be drawn on October 1st in Athens, where Europe’s Footballer of the Year will also be chosen. The first matchday is scheduled for October 20th and 21st, the last in the group stage just 48 days later for December 8th and 9th. The knockout round begins on February 16 with the round of 16 and ends with the final on May 29 in the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul.
The European Championship begins on June 11th. In Turkey, the final should actually take place this year before the corona crisis intervened. The planned hosts for the following years will therefore move one year further into the future. St. Petersburg will host in 2022, Munich in 2023 and London in 2024.
Who is already qualified for the group stage?
As usual, the first four of the 2019/20 season from the Bundesliga: FC Bayern, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Borussia Mönchengladbach. Six of the total of 32 participants will still be determined through qualification.
As champions, Bayern are definitely in pot 1 at the draw and cannot face the champions of the other top leagues in the group stage, including Real Madrid and Liverpool FC. Borussia Dortmund will end up in pot 2 due to the good club coefficient, Leipzig in pot 3, the Gladbachers more in pot 4. German duels in the group stage are excluded.
What is the composition of the lottery pots like?
This year’s pot 1 includes Real Madrid, Liverpool FC, Bayern, Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus Turin, Zenit St. Petersburg, Porto FC and Sevilla FC. One of these opponents (except Bavaria) will be drawn from BVB, Leipzig and Gladbach. Dortmund is also in the best company in Pot 2: FC Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Manchester City, Manchester United, Shakhtar Donetsk and Chelsea are threatening Bayern, Leipzig and Gladbach. Leipzig in pot 3 will initially avoid Inter Milan and Lazio Rome. Pot 4 consists of the weakest teams according to the coefficient.
The final division into pots 2 to 4 still depends on which clubs prevail in the play-offs (September 22nd to 30th). Ajax Amsterdam, Istanbul Basaksehir, Stade Rennes, Atalanta Bergamo, Lokomotiv Moscow, Olympique Marseille, Club Bruges and the Gladbachers are definitely qualified.
Will a final tournament be played again?
Uefa President Aleksander Ceferin had initially ruled out such mind games. From the quarter-finals in Lisbon, the blitz tournament offered high-quality football and extremely exciting games in a short period of time. “The format is like a world or European championship, the feeling when you go to the stadium. If there were spectators, it would probably be similar, ”said Bayern board member Oliver Kahn, who did not want to commit whether it would be better that way.
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Fewer games (only one knockout match per pairing instead of a return game) mean less income and marketing opportunities for the umbrella association and thus for the clubs. The well-known mode is already largely fixed until 2024, only then could a major reform come, which has recently been a controversial topic in European football.
But now Uefa boss Ceferin spoke up again on Sunday and is considering a possible waiver of return games in the European Cup. Suddenly he can imagine a permanent introduction of final tournaments. The system with one duel per encounter appears “more interesting”, said Ceferin. “It’s pretty complicated to put a Final 8 on the calendar. But we’ve seen that people want exciting games, so that in a game any team can beat any team in the Champions League or Europa League. So we are considering this in the future. I think we have to start talking seriously in September or October. “
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Uefa had brought their European Cup competitions to one location at a time and from the quarter-finals onwards with just one duel. The previously known mode is largely set until 2024.
In a European Cup revolution, it would have to be discussed from which round a possible final tournament could start. “You would be in the center of the world’s attention for a week and that would be fantastic, but we have to see,” said Ceferin.
Where can the games be seen on TV?
In the coming season, all the games can be seen again on the pay-TV channel Sky and the paid streaming service DAZN. The two pay providers have divided the rights and distribute the transfers according to a complicated key. For Sky it is the farewell season, because from 2021/22 Uefa’s new media contracts with DAZN and Amazon are valid. The finals from 2022 to 2024 will be shown by ZDF.
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*Display: Every viewer has the opportunity to follow the Champions League final live on this Sunday on the DAZN streaming service (11.99 euros per month). If you don’t have a subscription, you can watch the game for free. DAZN offers all new customers the opportunity to test the offer for one month free of charge. You can cancel the subscription within the first month.
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