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With Mbappé in Madrid and rematches of previous finals, a new era of the Champions League begins

By GRAHAM DUNBAR, AP Sports Writer

GENEVA (AP) — The new format of the Champions League begins Tuesday after more than six years of planning, a failed proposal and a fiasco at the launch of the Super League.

In the end, the traditional clubs that pushed for change at UEFA and shook up European football got most of what they wanted: more teams, more games, more of them against strong opponents, more money.

Now there are 36 teams instead of 32, each playing eight games instead of six and competing against eight different opponents instead of three.

The premiere on Tuesday is a highlight.

Kylian Mbappé begins his quest for a first title with his third club, 15-time European champions Real Madrid, who host Stuttgart. Mbappé reached the semi-finals with Monaco in 2017 and lost in the final with Paris Saint-Germain in 2020.

Ultimately, all 36 teams will be ranked top to bottom in a single league standings that ends in January, rather than the traditional four-team groups that would end in December.

UEFA has released its weekly schedule to relaunch the top club event on two consecutive evenings – six matches each until Thursday.

The new format

The league phase until January is quite simple. Each team plays a balanced schedule of eight games – four at home, four away – and receives three points for a win and one for a draw.

Last month's draw saw eight different opponents assigned, with a software program selecting two teams from each of four pots, with placement based on a team's results in five years of European competition in the UEFA rankings.

Recent champions Madrid, Manchester City and Bayern Munich were among the top seeds. In the bottom four were debutants Girona and Brest, as well as long-term absentees Aston Villa, Bologna and Stuttgart.

Getting into the knockout phase is more difficult and UEFA expects teams to need eight points from eight games to stay in the race.

The best eight in the table on January 29th qualify as numbers 1 to 8 seeds directly for the round of 16 in March.

The teams ranked 9th to 24th in the table will take part in a knockout playoff round in February. The teams ranked 9th to 16th will be seeded in the draw and will play the return matches at home against the teams ranked 17th to 24th. The last twelve teams in the table will be eliminated.

The eight playoff winners advance to the round of 16 as unseeded teams, which are drawn into a fixed tournament tree like in a tennis tournament. This replaces the old system of separate draws for the quarter-finals and semi-finals.

Tuesday starts with “Miracle” revenge

The new era begins with two early kick-offs at 16:45 GMT featuring three European Cup winners from the 1980s – Juventus (1985) host PSV Eindhoven (1988) and Aston Villa (1982) travel to Young Boys, both meetings between the teams for the first time.

Also included are the four teams with the most European Cup and Champions League titles in their 70-year history.

While Madrid face Stuttgart, six-time winners Bayern host Dinamo Zagreb looking to extend their 40-match, seven-year unbeaten streak in the group stage.

The most notable match is AC Milan versus Liverpool at the San Siro. Milan won the last of their seven European titles in the 2007 final against Liverpool. That was a repeat of the 2005 “Miracle of Istanbul” final, when Liverpool overcame a 3-0 half-time deficit to win the fifth of their six titles.

Another duel between Man City and Inter on Wednesday

A more recent remake of another Istanbul final pits the current champions of England and Italy against each other. Riding on Erling Haaland's fine start to the season, Manchester City hosts Inter Milan, whom it beat 1-0, in the 2023 final and is unbeaten in home Champions League matches for six years.

It's also a night for new faces. Girona, who are part of the same Abu Dhabi-backed ownership group as Man City, will make their European debut at Paris Saint-Germain.

Bologna host Shakhtar Donetsk in its first match in the competition since being eliminated in the group stage 60 years ago. Bologna still play at the Stadio Renato Dall'Ara, which has been its home since 1927 and hosted matches at the 1934 World Cup.

Leverkusen and Atalanta strengthen their squad on Thursday

Last season’s Europa League finalists are now entering the bigger stage together.

Bayer Leverkusen's only defeat in a remarkable first full season under coach Xabi Alonso came in the European final against Atalanta. Now Leverkusen returns to the Champions League to face Feyenoord, whose coach last season Arne Slot took over the job at Liverpool that was first offered to Alonso.

Atalanta hosts Arsenal, who are missing their captain Martin Odegaard due to an ankle injury sustained while playing for Norway on Monday.

La Liga leaders Barcelona travel to Monaco with 17-year-old star Lamine Yamal and the most unlikely of all 18 games this week is Brest against Sturm Graz.

Brest was founded 121 years ago and has never played a European Cup match. Sturm last played in the Champions League 23 years ago. The game will take place in Guingamp, 110 kilometers east of the Atlantic port city of Brest, whose home stadium is not modern enough.

More prize money

UEFA has invested at least 2.5 billion euros in the prize money fund of the 36 clubs, 25 percent more than last season. The title winner on May 31 in Munich can expect more than 160 million euros.

Each team will receive a base bonus of €18.6 million ($20.6 million), then €2.1 million ($2.3 million) for each match won in the league phase and €700,000 ($780,000) per draw.

Each place in the rankings is worth more money, with shares worth 275,000 euros ($305,000) per place: 36 shares, or 9.9 million euros ($11 million), will go to the team that finishes first in January, and a single share to the team in last place.

The bonuses for advancing to each knockout round are 11 million euros (12.3 million dollars) per team.

A further prize fund of €853 million (US$950 million) will be awarded based on the teams' previous performances in UEFA competitions and the value of their domestic and global broadcast contracts.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.