The Champions League group stage could mean Chelsea competing in the same section as Real Madrid and the Premier League’s other qualifiers potentially being paired with either Bayern Munich or Barcelona, as Uefa’s new seeding system is implemented for the first time in today’s draw in Monaco.
The governing body has scrapped the previous policy, under which the top eight teams were determined by recent performances in the competition, and would comprise pot one in the draw, avoiding each other in the group stage. Instead, top-seeded status is now only granted to the holders and the winners of domestic leagues in Spain, England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, France and Russia.
That has also been extended to the Netherlands, given that Barcelona, the holders, also won La Liga last season.
As a result, the Catalan club – who will hope to retain the trophy that will be contested at San Siro next May – are joined by Chelsea, Bayern, Juventus, Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain, Zenit St Petersburg and PSV Eindhoven in the first pot. Those last three clubs would only have merited inclusion in the third group of seeds in the previous system.
Relegation
The knock-on effect of their elevation is the relegation of Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Arsenal and Porto to pot two, where they will join Valencia, Manchester City, Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester United.
Spain are the first nation to boast five clubs in the group stage after Valencia eliminated Monaco in the play-offs on Tuesday.
For City who, as relative newcomers to this competition have been dogged by difficult draws at this stage in recent years, the prospect remains of a section that might include Barca, Roma and Wolfsburg.
They and Arsenal might hope instead to be placed alongside PSV, Olympiakos and Malmo – who overcame Celtic in Sweden on Tuesday – with Arsène Wenger hoping to steer the north London club into the knockout phase for the 16th year in succession.
Gent, winners of the Belgian league last season, are guaranteed new faces among the 32 clubs at the group stage, while Astana became the first team from Kazakhstan when they overcame the Cypriot side, Apoel, last night. Borussia Mönchengladbach, beaten finalists to Liverpool in 1977, will debut in the revamped European Cup.
Uefa, like last year, is to keep Russian clubs away from Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar given the conflict in eastern Ukraine between government forces and pro-Russian separatists.
Controversially, the Greek champions Olympiakos have been permitted to take part despite their president, Vangelis Marinakis, having been implicated in a criminal investigation into alleged match-fixing.
The court of arbitration for sport this week dismissed an appeal by Panathinaikos, last season’s runners-up, to be included instead after Uefa confirmed it had no conclusive evidence from Greece to deny Olympiakos their place.
The draw will take place at 4.30 pm Irish time, live on BT Sports.
Champions League group stage draw pots:
Pot one: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, Benfica, Zenit St Petersburg, PSV Eindhoven
Pot two: Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, FC Porto, Arsenal, Manchester United, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, Manchester City
Pot three: Shakhtar Donetsk, Sevilla, Lyon, Dynamo Kiev, Olympiakos, CSKA Moscow, Galatasaray, AS Roma
Pot four: BATE Borisov, Borussia Monchengladbach, Vfl Wolfsburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Gent, Malmo, FK Astana Guardian Service
