UCL

New clubs can only dream of qualifying for the group stages of UEFA's Champions League. The set-up of the tournament continues to be heavily biased toward ...

The chances of a new club emerging from that path seems increasingly unlikely. In 2024/25, the UCL’s group stages will expand to include 36 clubs. Last season’s Cypriot league runners-up AEK Larnaca made their UCL debut but were knocked out immediately in the second qualifying round. Overall, 1,999 spaces have been offered by UEFA in the UCL since 1994/95, and 480 have gone to clubs from the big five leagues of England, Spain, Germany, Italy, and France. During the same period, 10 different clubs have taken up the 102 places offered to the English Premier League. While there has been a greater number of different clubs from Germany in the UCL, Bayern Munich have only missed out on three occasions in the last 29 seasons and have won their national league for 10 seasons in a row. In the 2021/22 UCL, 25 of the then 54 countries to take part were represented by the same clubs. Another 600.6 million euros will also be paid out this season to clubs in the UCL based on their performances over the 10 previous years. Each of the 32 teams will each get a basic payment of 15.6 million euros – before performance bonuses and TV money - but 26 of those clubs are allocated spots by UEFA without needing to go through a qualification round. Over the past 11 years, eight UCL debutants have reached the group stages but five including Eintracht Frankfurt were gifted places courtesy of UEFA rules to favour stronger leagues and placate bigger clubs. And that was because the German club won UEFA’s Europa League last season, which guarantees the winners a place in the UCL group stages. New clubs can only dream of qualifying for the group stages of UEFA's Champions League.