How can Greece send a representative to the group in the new form without qualifiers?

The reformed Champions League will enter our lives from the new season, and will bring world-historic changes. Groups will become a thing of the past for the first time since the tournament’s previous update, in 1992, making way for the League Stage, a group of 36 teams.

What has never changed is UEFA’s desire to bring teams from Europe’s top leagues into the organisation, giving them the opportunity to have more than four representatives.

Until now, this was possible if a club from an advanced league won the Champions League or Europa League and at the same time was not in a position to book a ticket to the top club competition from its country. This means that this country will award tickets to the top four in the standings and UEFA will award a ticket to the winner of its own competition.

Since then, the stronger the league, the more tickets it has available. The total was always 32 teams, six of which came from the playoffs, either champions or non-champions.

But to increase the number of teams to 36, UEFA had to find a way to allocate the additional four tickets. One was awarded to the country ranked fifth in the UEFA rankings, another one ended up in the qualifiers and the remaining two… for free!

The 36 tickets for the Champions League 2024-2025

• 1 – Winner of the Champions League 2023-2024
• 1 – Winner of the European League 2023-2024
• 10 in the Champions League from position 1 to position 10 in the UEFA rankings
• 6 in the second division from position 1 to position 6 in the UEFA rankings
• Fifth place in the third division from position 1 to position 5 in the UEFA classification
• 4 in the league quarter from position 1 to position 4 in the UEFA rankings
• 5 qualifier winners on Champions Road
• 2 qualifier winners on the road to non-champions
• 1 in the league with the best UEFA coefficient for the previous season
• 1 in the league with the second best UEFA coefficient for the previous season

In the group without qualifiers is even a team from San Marino

The remaining two tickets from the Champions League group stage will go to the two countries that top the UEFA standings, with one important detail. The ranking will not relate to the five years, but to the previous season.

Therefore, the remaining two tickets for the 2024-2025 Champions League group stage will go to the countries with the best crop in European competitions 2023-2024, regardless of what they have done in previous years and how successful or unsuccessful they were. .

Only the points provided by its representatives in the 2023-2024 season matter, and thus a club from San Marino can secure a place in the Champions League group without qualifying.

How can Greece benefit?

Our country started this season well in terms of its crop, sending four representatives to the group stage, losing only to Aris. AEK, Panathinaikos, Olympiacos and PAOK provided enough points in the qualifiers and in the groups.

The 6,000 points are considered the second best crop since 2015-2016, although it has not stopped and Greece may have representatives in Europe even in 2024.

This year’s ranking places them seventh in the UEFA General Rankings for 2023-24, not too far behind the top two places offering a ticket to the group stage of the new Champions League.

At the top is Turkey with 8,750 points but three representatives (they lost one) and in second place is Belgium with 7,400 points and five representatives (they did not lose one).

Just above Greece are UEFA’s top four nations, and below them are the chasing Netherlands and France, who have also secured one of the two extra tickets.

Our country’s task seems very difficult, but at the moment it seems capable of staying at the highest level in this year’s UEFA rankings, but everything will depend on the final result and whether the Greek representatives will continue to provide it with points.