Liverpool have been affected by UEFA’s key rule change in the new Champions League format

After an away season, Liverpool will return to the UEFA Champions League for the 2024/25 campaign.

Sealing a top-three finish in the Premier League this term – with a few games to go and before they even kicked a ball against Tottenham Hotspur last weekend – the Reds will once again take a place in Europe’s top flight after a campaign in Europa League. which was ended by finalists Atalanta in the quarter-final stage.

Of course, Liverpool’s return to European football’s elite club competition does indeed coincide with a brand new format. It has already been announced by UEFA that for the 2024/25 season there will be a single league made up of all 36 competing clubs, meaning the group stage format – 32 competing teams separated into four pots of eight – will be scrapped .

As the statement explains: “This will give four more sides the chance to compete against the best clubs in Europe.”

Despite not winning the trophy in 2019, Liverpool are recognized as one of the best clubs in Europe and their performances in the Champions League and Europa League in recent seasons will come in handy due to a key rule change.

June 1, 2019, Madrid, Spain: Liverpool’s Divock Origi is seen celebrating after the 2019 Champions League Final match between Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium. Madrid Spain – ZUMAs197 20190601zabs197203 Copyright: xRichardxCalverx

Assuming Arsenal and Manchester City don’t suffer a form collapse in the final two weeks of the season, the Reds won’t return to the Champions League as champions of England, but there is a scenario where they are seeded higher than the potential Premier League. champions.

Champions League rule changes will affect Liverpool

Under previous rules, Liverpool would not be eligible for a place in Pot One next season, as those places are reserved for the domestic champions of the six highest-ranked nations in UEFA’s coefficients, as well as the holders of the Champions League and Europa League.

However, in the new format, the domestic champions and Europa League holders are no longer guaranteed a place in Pot One. In fact, the top seeds will now be made up of the current Champions League winners and the top eight teams in the UEFA club rankings.

With 114 points in the odds table, Liverpool along with Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan are guaranteed Pot One. That said, that doesn’t mean the Merseyside giants will have a draw as two of their eight games will be against sides from the same pot.

This creates the possibility of facing Manchester City and one of Arsenal and Aston Villa or Tottenham Hotspur – depending on who claims fourth place – marking the first time teams from the same nation have met before the Champions League quarter-finals of in 2005/2006 when Liverpool were bizarrely denied ‘country protection’.