Women's Champions League to expand to 18 teams

Published on: 02 December 2023

Barcelona came from two nil down to beat Wolfsburg 3-2 in the Women's Champions League final in June

The Women's Champions League is set to become an 18-team league format from the 2025-26 season.

Instead of 16 teams split into four groups, clubs will play three home and three away matches before moving into a knockout phase.

Uefa's executive committee approved the changes at a meeting in Hamburg, Germany on Saturday.

The women's competition will align with the new men's Champions League format which will be introduced next season.

From the 2024-25 campaign, the men's tournament will become one 36-team league, in which clubs play four matches home and away in a seeded system before moving into the knockout stages.

Uefa has also given the green light to a second women's European club competition and will release further details on Monday.

In addition the committee confirmed the match schedule for the Women's Euros in Switzerland in 2025, with the final to be played at St Jakob-Park in Basel on 27 July.

Prize money for the men's European Championship in Germany next summer will also remain at the same level as the delayed 2020 tournament.

A total of 331m euros (£283.5m) is set to be distributed, with the winning team potentially receiving a maximum payout of 28.25m euros (£24.2m).

The draw for Euro 2024 is live on BBC Two, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website and app from 17:15 GMT.

Source: bbc.com

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