What does the Swiss system that will organize the Champions in 2024 consist of?

• This will be the Champions 24/25 36 teams, eight safe games and without club coefficient for two of the additional places

Although there is still time for 2024, yesterday the details of the revolution that the Champions League will present from that season (24/25) were announced.

A revolution, as a response to the famous Super League, where there will be room for 36 teams (instead of 32 as is the case up to now) that will face each other in a single league.

The draws for the group stage are over.

From there will come the names of the 16 who will access the round of 16.

The top eight directly, and those remaining between ninth and 24th position, after a two-legged tie.

In this unique league of 36 teams, everyone will play eight duels, and not 10 as it appeared in the proposal initially presented.

So, if it's a 36-team league, but each team only plays eight games, how do you decide who plays who?

The answer comes from Switzerland, specifically from chess.

And to be more exact from a guy named

, who gave birth to the idea of ​​him, known as the Swiss system, in the 19th century.

As it is.

That format was officially released in 1895, during the Zurich tournament.

129 years later, already in the 21st century, it will be football, specifically the Champions League, who will make use of its creation.

Julius would never have thought that his invention, applied to other sports disciplines, would end up taking so much flight and being one of the keys in the redesign of the Champions League.

But what is the mechanism of this Swiss system?

In the case of chess, in championships with many opponents, try to match each one with an opponent who has the same level.

The games with white and black must also be balanced, so that no one has more advantage than another.

In the Champions

that touches us, in approach will not be very different.

The goal, basically, is for everyone to play against everyone.

And that those who are adding victories, those who present a higher level, face rivals with performance or similar moments.

There will be an initial distribution of matches with which the competition will open and from there, it will be the victories, the draws and the defeats that will lead the way during those eight days that everyone will be assured of.

Two more than there were until now and two less than those that were intended to be established.

Apparently, the victory will be worth one point and the tie, half.

So, if the most powerful teams face each other, by inertia, they will end up measuring themselves to those one step (or two) below.

In short, everything will lead to that desired all against all.

Although, literally, it will not be like that.

Because there will be some guidelines that will be maintained.

There will be no classic or Madrid derby or any duel between teams from the same country until the competition progresses.

That would remain as before.

That is to say, there would continue to be conditioning factors in the confrontations, beyond the score.

12 eliminated after the league

The best eight will go directly to the round of 16, nothing new there.

Yes it will be that the teams that finish between 9th and 24th position will face each other in a round-robin tie to see who occupies the remaining eight places.

There will be 12 who will say goodbye when that league concludes: those who finish between 25th and 36th place.

There was controversy about how that expansion of four teams would be carried out.

More than anything because the initial idea was to apply the club coefficient criterion for two of them.

Finally, as the leagues and fans had requested, they will go to the federations with the best performance of their clubs in the previous season.

Due to the collective performance of their teams, this year the winners would have been

and

.

The remaining two tickets would be for a national champion of the so-called Route of Champions and for a third party from the federation who is in fifth position in the ranking.

There are still two years to go before this new bet with which UEFA wants to keep everyone happy and avoid external temptations such as the Super League.

"We are convinced that the chosen format strikes the right balance," its president,

, admitted yesterday .

That time will tell.

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