How will Thursday's new Champions League draw work?

it's fair to say there's been plenty of changes to the procedure we're going to do our best or at least these two are to try and explain the process now as he said tomorrow the draw in Monaco how's it going to look well I think the big element we got to remember Rob is that we've gone from this traditional group phase to a league phase so 36 teams and we've mentioned here that a computer is going to be involved in making this draw because it gets quite complicated okay so 36 teams get split into four pots and that's based on their UFA Club coefficient which is basically their historic performance in Europe how well they've done previously so those clubs will be drawn out of a hat one of them will be drawn out of pot one and then a computer will then decide who they will play in their eight League fixtures so you play four teams at home four teams away different teams every way every time it's not home and away like previously we have to get used to this new format now um and each team will play two teams from each of the four pots one home and one away this idea that you play strong teams straight away so we see good high quality matches straight from the off and also even quality matches right through the competition you cannot face teams from the same Nation at this stage and you can only face a maximum of two teams from one country at this stage of the competition as well and when you start looking through all those details you understand well why they've handed it over to the algorithm to sort out what could possibly go wrong tomorrow I can't think um let's talk about the where is it third Point fourth point four home games to in four four away games so my math isn't great but that's two more group games than last year for everyone involved in the Champions League I can cast my mind forward to to complaints about fixture pileup I suppose fans particularly I would say Villa fans will like it because they're in the Champions League for the first time in forever and eight matches but there will be complaints about the amount of games that players are playing yeah absolutely there will be more games of course and there is the potential that you might get some more interesting fixures because a lot of new teams qualified for the Champions League not just Aston Villa but bologna are in the champion league for the first time since the mid-60s stutgart for the first time since 20091 everyone's Keen to see how B lusen translate that form to the Champions League still unbeaten in over 40 games in domestic competition of course after a great start to the season for shabby Alonzo's men there's also Herona who were in The Segunda division three years ago competing in the Champions League so there's a lot of Underdog stories in this year's competition along with the big dogs of Real Madrid Barcelona Bayern Munich uh you know Inter Milan Etc uh so should be an intriguing draw if it works sure it will that's the Champions League what about the Europa League then yeah it's copy and paste job really Rob because saved us a bit of time yeah Europa League again going to this 36 Team league format and once again the computer is brought in to uh solve these fixture issues where teams can't play teams from the same country and they can only face two teams from other countries at this stage and once again we have these this situation where you play Four at home four away against different teams from different pots just a little uh note R about that expected to last around 35 minutes because we know that these draws can drag on but do they ever well when they did a rehearsal with humans doing this draw it took over three hours so maybe 35 minutes count your blessings that we've only got 35 minutes tomorrow Vicky G was on doing the draw tomorrow she du to be 5 till 7 it might be 5 till 10 if it takes three hours um let's talk about the Europa League then with the English Representatives which are Manchester United and Tottenham who do you think they might or could come up against well again there's some games to fear Athletic Club with Nico Williams the one of the stars of Euro 2024 of course in the summer they've not started the season in the best of form but niiko Williams will be expecting to make a big impact given how well he played at the Euros there's Fen Bach and Galatasaray never an easy away draw olympos won the conference League last year beating Aston Villa on the way beating Fiorentina in the final there's Roma there's Lazio Roma won the conference League a few years ago Europa League semi-finalist the next year uh so there is a lot of quality in this uh draw and there's still so many games to be decided prior to the draw happening as well so it's going to be an absolutely fascinating competition once again right conference League yeah slightly different slightly different for the conference league if Chelsea will beat sevette across these two legs and get through into this competition this is what they're going to face again we've got 36 teams but they're going to be split into six pots again based on their Club coefficient their historic performance in Europe and slightly fewer games for teams in this competition they play six League fixtures three Home Three away this comp comption actually actually wraps up in December the other two in go into January so um yeah slightly earlier finish for this one but those caveats below are tweak slightly so each team will play one team from each of those six pots you can't face teams from the same nation in this phase of the competition like the other competitions and you can only face a maximum of two teams from one country in the league phase of the conference League I want to throw Hospital PK it's not been written down but do you know the pots for the English clubs not yet not off the top of my head I know City a won and Villa are four and I'm assuming Chelsea will be won in that um let's uh let's talk about um the the potential then for the English clubs in terms of Going the Distance this year well it's Chelsea and we've been talking about their squad depth and what they'd expect from this season they'll want to reestablish themselves at the sharp end of European football and yes it's the conference league but you know since winning the Champions League in 2021 they've had two quarterfinal exits in the Champions League Of course didn't playing it last year after a poor performance in the league the before and this is a great opportunity for the liks of jewsbury Hall to get some game time in this competition maybe Axel de sassy badia Shield as well you know maybe Xiao Felix will really announce himself in a Chelsea shirt after that slightly tricky loone spell the year before last as well so Chelsea will be hoping for big things from this competition they've certainly got the squad depth to make a real dent in it and just finally European competitions affect the efl Cup this year why they do so we got the carabel Cup draw tonight after the final round of second round games tonight now the third round of the car carabel cup clashes with the first games of the champions league and the Europa League fixtures so those champions league and Europa League teams who've qualified for those competitions will not face each other in the carabel Cup draw so they'll be kept apart in the carabel Cup draw Chelsea if they do get through against svette they will be in the caribel Cup draw in the open Draw they could play anyone because the conference League starts in October after the caribel cup third round ties have been played [Music]