Champions League 2018-19 explained How UEFAs changes impact qualification spots

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Another two teams enter at the final

The first and second qualifying rounds will both be held in July with the third qualifying round and play-off taking place in August.

However, the European governing body has decided to shake things up by scrapping the traditional kick-off time for games in favour of a staggered approach.

Six teams – those from associations ranked 10th to 15th – enter thesecond qualifying round.

However, from 2018-19 on, any team that is eliminated from any stage of the Champions League qualification process will subsequently drop into the Europa League, in what UEFA has called a second chance at securing continental football for the season.

Two more teams (in 2018-19 they will be teams from Netherlands and Greece) will enter at the

There will be two kick-off slots: an early kick-off at17:55and a later time of20:00.

They can seem complicated so if you are in the dark about what these changes are and how they will affect your team, fear not!Goalbreaks it down.

While the Champions Route consists of five rounds in all, the League Route has just three: second qualifying round, third qualifying round and the play-off round.

Of course, depending on what teams win the Champions League and Europa League, some countries may end up having more representatives.

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Group stage football will then get under way in September 2018, concluding in December.

and they join the 10 second qualifying round winners.

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The winner of the preliminary round mini-tournament joins 33 other teams in thefirst qualifying round(from countries ranked 18-52 – except Liechtenstein.)

As a result of there being four extra automatic group-stage berths there will be fewer places on offer via the qualification rounds.

Champions League 2018-19 explained: How UEFAs changes impact qualification spots

Of those six placesfourwill go to teams who enter the competition through the Champions Route andtwoare available to teams via the League Route.

The Champions Route, as the name suggest, is reserved for domestic champions.Preliminary round

From the summer of 2018 on the Champions League will have somewhat of a different feel to it thanks to the changes being introduced by UEFA.

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With a lower number of places up for grabs and, in some cases, more games to play, reaching the group stage has become somewhat more difficult.

The teams that lose in the play-off round in both the Champions and League routes will subsequently drop straight into the group stage of the second-tier competition. Those teams that lose in the third qualifying round of the League Route – a total of four – will also drop into the group stage.

Quite a few, actually. First off, from the 2018-19 season onwards, there will be26 automatic entrantsto the Champions League group stage, as opposed to 22.

Anew preliminary qualification roundwill be introduced to the qualification process in this route.

However, the number of representatives allowed from a single country is capped at five.

The League Route is the pathway taken by clubs that are not domestic champions but qualify for the Champions League through their league finish.

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In 2018-19 these associations are as follows:

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Generally speaking, Champions League matches have been played at 19:45 (UK time) with some exceptions, but they will now follow a similar schedule as the Europa League.

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Previously there had been 10 spots available from the qualification rounds (five via Champions Route, five via League Route), but there arenow only six.

The 2018-19 tournament will kick off on June 26, 2018 when the preliminary round semi-finals take place, with the preliminary round final being played three days later.

The final, which is set to be held at Wanda Metropolitano (home of Atletico Madrid), is scheduled for June 1.

You can see the breakdown of the 33 teams that enter at this stage below:

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Theplay-offround will feature no new entrants, only the four winners of the third qualifying round.Europa League second chance

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Slight alterations to format, particularly the qualification process, will have an impact on teams from certain countries, while fans will have to get used to some schedule tweaks.

It will be a four-team mini-tournament with teams coming from Gibraltar, Andorra, San Marino and Kosovo in 2018-19, based on their association ranking.

stage (in 2018-19 these teams will come from Switzerland and Czech Republic), where they will join the six winners of the third qualifying round.

There will be a knock-on effect on the Europa League, with changes also being implemented in the second-tier tournament.

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The restructuring of the format means that a number of associations teams will have to navigate their way through one more round than was previously the case, making it more difficult to reach the group stage of the competition.

The six clubs who are eliminated at the third qualifying round in the Champions Route of the Champions League are guaranteed a place in the Europa League play-off.

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The European governing body has decided to make some changes in what it has described as an evolution in their flagship tournament

The 20 teams that lose in the Champions League preliminary and first qualifying rounds will go into the second qualifying round of Europa Leagues own Champions Route.

In 2018-19 the five new entrants are broken down in the table below:

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Third-placed teams from associations ranked fifth and sixth as well as the runners-up from associations ranked seventh to 15th participate in this qualification process.

While UEFA has made some dramatic changes to the qualification process for the Champions League, the format of the group stage remains the same.

In thethird qualifying roundfive teams – from associations ranked fifth to ninth – join the three winners from the second qualifying round.

Thirteen clubs that are eliminated from the Champions League second qualifying round will enter the Europa League third qualifying round. Of the 13 clubs, 10 are from the Champions Route, three are from the League Route and they remain in the Europa Leagues corresponding sections.

For the first season of the new format, those 26 group-stage entrants -based on the 2017 association coefficients- will be as follows:

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The changes to the Champions League will come into effect from the summer of 2018 and are expected to run until 2021 at least, at which point UEFA may revisit.

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