2023-24 Champions League Season
The last UEFA Champions League season before the new format is implemented.
By Eduardo Benitez
Liverpool vs Real Madrid, Second Leg, Champions League Mar. 15, 2023. at the Santiago Bernabeu
Photograph by Carlos Guevara
The 2022-23 Union of European Football Associations, UEFA, Champions League, had Manchester City Football Club crowned as champions of Europe for the first time. A new season has arrived for the UEFA Champions League starting on Sept. 19, 2023. This season will be the last season with the 32-team format, before the new 36-team format is implemented.
The current format consists of eight groups of four teams. Two teams from the same league can not be put into the same group to face each other. The top two teams of each group move onto the knockout stage, while third placed teams drop down to the round of 32 knockout stages of the UEFA Europa League. Fourth place teams are eliminated from the competition.
This season will be the last time where teams that place third in their group drop down to the UEFA Europa League. The 2024-25 UEFA Champions League format will have an expansion, increasing the number of participating teams from 32 to 36.
Union Berlin and Royal Antwerp are the two teams who will be participating in their first ever Champions League. Some of the teams that are returning to the competition after long absences are Arsenal (England), Lens (France), and Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine).
The group stages are set and matches will be held on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Bayern Munich vs Manchester United, Inter Milan vs Real Sociedad and Sevilla vs Arsenal are just some of the matches that will be played in the group stages.
The “group of death” in this year's competition will be Group F, which will have Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund, AC Milan, and Newcastle United. Any of these teams will be able to make a run in this tournament, but two of them will not make it to the knockout stages.
The Champion League trophy will be lifted at Wembley Stadium in London, England as it will be host to the final on June 1, 2024. The last time the final was held at Wembley was in 2013, when Bayern Munich were the team to lift the trophy after beating Borussia Dortmund.