Champions League / Mike Norman / 28 August 2008 / Leave a comment

Prior to this afternoon's group stage draw, Mike Norman explains everything you need to know about the Champions League.

Later this afternoon, the draw for the group stages of the 2008-09 Champions League will take place, thus signaling the start of the real action and leaving behind some of the rubbish that has gone before it.

I'm talking about the qualifying rounds, and in particular the first qualifying round where a team of part-time fishermen take on a bunch of goat herders in what is supposedly one of the world's greatest club competitions. It's complete nonsense. The Champions League format needs a radical change - and I'm not just talking about moving the final from a Wednesday evening to a Saturday evening (as it will from next season), I'm talking about getting rid of some of the useless 'pub' teams that are currently allowed to participate.

Some will argue they deserve to be there, after all, they are champions of their own country. This is of course true, but only because the current format allows them to be there. Teams like S.S. Murata from San Marino are getting beat 9-0 in the first qualifying round, and are amongst 28 teams that realistically shouldn't be in the competition.

Get them a competition of their own and allow them to play more games against European clubs of similar level - it will be far more beneficial in the long term.

For the purpose of the Champions League, each national league is classed as an 'association' - the better the league, the higher the association. A total of 76 teams will have played at some stage in this season's competition with the 28 lowest ranked teams (from associations 25-53) playing in the first qualifying round (these are the 28 teams I would like to see have their own competition).

As the qualifying rounds progress, teams from the higher ranked associations enter the competition, most significantly in round three where the teams that finished third and fourth in associations 1-3 (that's the Premiership, La Liga and Seria A) enter. The 16 successful teams from the third qualifying round will enter the group stages, where they will be joined by the 16 automatic qualifiers (10 champions from associations 1-10 and 6 runners-up from associations 1-6).

For the group draw, teams are seeded in club coefficient order (a points scoring system based on results in European club competition in the last five seasons) with the top eight seeded teams going into pot one, teams seeded 9-16 in pot two, 17-24 in pot three and 25-32 in pot four. One team from each pot is then grouped together to make eight groups, with the teams playing each other in a series of matches between 16th September and 10th December.

Although Chelsea ([6.4] to win the competition) are the highest ranked team in the club coefficient list, Manchester United ([7.4]) were seeded number one because of their defending champions' status. Belarus side FC Bate ([460.0]) are the lowest ranked side in the competition and are the first Belarusian football team to make the group stages of the Champions League.

Pot one consists of some of the giants of European football, meaning they can't meet each other until the knock-out stages. These teams are Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool ([13.5]), Barcelona ([9.2]), Arsenal ([13.5]), Lyon ([40.0]), Inter Milan ([8.8]) and Real Madrid ([9.4]).

Pot two is also quite hot and includes four times European champions Bayern Munich ([23.0]), Italian giants Juventus ([21.0] and Roma ([29.0]), and the 2004 champions FC Porto ([210.0]). More British interest comes in the shape of Celtic ([280.0]) who are in pot three with Marseille ([180.0]), while in pot four some well regarded teams are represented, namely Atletico Madrid ([55.0]) and Fiorentina ([75.0]).

Later today, it's quite possible for the draw to pit together Manchester United, Juventus, Marseille and Atletico Madrid in the same group - now wouldn't that be something?

After the group stages are concluded, the top two teams from each of the eight groups go into a straightforward knock-out competition - well straightforward in terms of the winners progressing through to the next round and so on, but the draw itself is pretty complicated. Basically, teams that met in the group stages, and teams that come from the same association (i.e. Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United) can't meet in the first knock-out stage.

Oh, and did I mention that the team the finishes third in each group drop out of the Champions League and go into the UEFA Cup knock-out stages? Well that's another story!

Eventually we will end up with two teams meeting in the Champions League Final at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on 27th May 2009 playing for the right to be crowned Champions of Europe.

So now you know the format, the teams still in, the favourites and the likely contenders. All you need to do now is sit back and enjoy the draw (4.30pm live on Sky Sports) before placing your bets here at Betfair. Good luck.