Qualification is divided into direct participation in the main event and participation in qualifying events.
The UEFA Champions League is played in three stages, the first being the qualifying stage, the second the group stage and the third the knockout stage.
Starting with the 2009/2010 season, the group stage is preceded by four rounds of qualifying (the fourth round being the
decider
), all of which are home and away two-legged knockout tournaments to determine the other ten places going into the group stage. There are two routes to qualification, the Championship route and the Rankings route. The main purpose of having two separate routes to qualification is that teams that enter the group stage through the championship route and the ranking route will not meet in the group stage. Teams eliminated in the third qualifying round will advance to the UEFA Europa League play-offs (fourth qualifying round).
The championship pathway is a four-round tournament featuring the champions of national leagues that do not have direct access to the divisional rounds, with the total number of teams varying slightly from one tournament to the next (due to new member countries joining the tournament, bans for non-compliant members, changes in the number of spots in the direct divisional rounds, withdrawals, etc.).
The teams participating in the first round are mainly the lowest strength league championship teams (e.g. Faroe Islands, San Marino, Andorra), and after the first round there will be 37 domestic champions left who are eligible to continue to compete (the number of teams participating in the first round is calculated in accordance with the 37 teams left, e.g., there are a total of 41 championship teams competing in the competition, and 4 of them will need to be eliminated in the first round, and thus the 8 lowest-ranked teams will face off against each other).
In the second qualifying round, the weaker 34 of the 37 championship teams participated, deciding the 17 spots going into the third round.
The third round joins the three strongest remaining league champions (usually ranked 14-16), and the 20 champions determine the 10 teams that advance to the fourth round.
No new league champions will be added in the fourth round, and the five divisional playoff spots for the championship pathway will be decided directly.
Note that the Liechtenstein Football Association does not have its own league, and its only official soccer club participates in the Swiss league, so there is no league championship to participate in the championship pathway; similarly, Monaco
Soccer clubs play in the French leagues, but Monaco is not a member of UEFA; the Vatican has no soccer clubs.
The third-placed league teams from the association ranked 6th in UEFA and the nine league runners-up from the associations ranked 7th to 15th in UEFA go straight into the third qualifying round, where the 10 teams are split into five pairs for the knockout stages, with the five winners going through to the play-offs, along with the fourth-placed leagues from the associations ranked 1st to 3rd in Europe and the third-placed leagues from the associations ranked 4th to 5th. The 10 teams are also divided into five pairs for the knockout stage, with the five winners advancing to the group stage of the Champions League.
The Ranking Pathway is only the third and fourth rounds, and the participating teams are 1 team from each of the top 15 ranked countries in the league, all of which are their country's runners-up, third-place or top finishers, and are the top-ranked teams in their domestic leagues, in addition to those teams that go directly to the Group Stage and those that participate in the Championship Pathway. The 10 relatively weaker teams will determine five teams in the third round, and together with the stronger five teams, will enter the fourth round to determine the five places in the group stage of the platoon pathway.
If the defending champion occupies a dedicated seat and is in the top three ranked countries, this country will send four teams directly into the group stage and will lose its ranking pathway qualification (e.g., Chelsea in England in the 2012/2013 season), and there will be only 14 teams from 14 countries competing for the five ranking pathway group stage slots, with four teams from eight teams in the third round, joined by a stronger group of six in the fourth round, to decide on the five slots.
Since the implementation of the two-pathway rule in 2009, teams in the ranking pathway have performed more impressively than in the championship pathway, with more teams making it to the round of 16 or even going further, such as Bayern, who made it out of the ranking pathway in the 2011/2012 season
Reached the final and was one step away from winning the title.
Entry criteria for the group stage: The number of teams entering the group stage is 32 (31 teams + defending champions), with the three highest-ranked UEFA associations each having three teams entering the group stage. The 4th to 6th ranked federations will have two teams each. The 7th through 12th ranked associations will each have one direct entry. Together with the 10 teams in the play-offs, a total of 32 teams will participate in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League.
The 32 teams are divided into eight groups of four teams each for the points competition. The top two finishers advance to the knockout stage, with the third place finishers from each of the eight groups advancing to the round of 32 knockout rounds of the UEFA Europa League, where the top four finishers will be seeded along with the first place finishers from each of the groups in the League Cup group stage. The qualifications for the tournament are as follows:
0 or 1 seat for the defending Champions League winners: usually the previous defending Champions League winners qualify directly through the domestic rankings and therefore do not occupy the defending champion's seat. Occasionally, the defending champions will have to occupy the defending champion's seat if they have not performed well in their domestic league that year (e.g. in the 2011/2012 season, defending champions Chelsea were only ranked 6th in the Premier League);
13 or 12 domestic champions: usually the champions of the top 13 national leagues under the UEFA umbrella, or the top 12 domestic champions if the exclusive seat for the defending champion is occupied;
Qualifying Championship Pathway for 5 Domestic Champions: all domestic champions other than the 13 or 12 domestic champions listed above can compete for these 5 group stage spots through the championship pathway.
6 domestic runners-up: that's each of the top 6 domestic runners-up in the league;
3 Domestic Quarterfinalists: that's the top 3 domestic quarterfinalists in each of the league's top 3 rankings;
The 5 teams in the qualifying ranking pathway out of the tournament: the top 15 countries in the league, the strongest 1 of their respective remaining teams, for a total of 15 teams in contention (in a few cases, the total number of teams in the tournament is 14).
The tournament is divided into eight groups of four teams each (teams from the same country will not be placed in the same group). The tournament will be played in a double round-robin format, with three points for the winner, one for a draw and zero for the loser, with the first and second place finishers advancing to the one-eighth finals. The third place will move on to the UEFA Europa League.
If two or more teams in a group are tied, the winner will be determined in the following order:
The side with the better head-to-head record of the team concerned;
The side with the better goal difference in head-to-head matches between the teams involved;
The side that scores more away goals in head-to-head matches between the teams involved;
2. If the points are the same, look at the relationship between each other's wins and losses;
3. The number of goals scored against each other if they have the same win/loss ratio;
4, also the same if you look at who scored more goals on the road;
5, also the same if you look at the total goal difference in the group stage;
6, also the same if you look at the total number of goals scored in the group stage;
The knockout stage is a two-legged knockout tournament, home and away, except for the championship, which is decided by a single game on a neutral site. In addition, the UEFA Champions League only has two prizes: the champion and the runner-up, and there is no competition for the third place.
The quarter-finals, last eight (quarter-finals) and last four (semi-finals) are played on a two-legged home-and-away basis, with an away goal advantage. For the quarter-finals, the teams will be drawn by lot, subject to the following criteria:
It must be the first team against the second team of the other group; the first round will be played first at the home ground of the second-placed team of the group.
The teams that qualify for the Top 8 will then be drawn to meet each other, and at the same time decide the qualification table from the Top 8 to the final, there is no restriction on group positions, countries or home and away matches in this draw.
The final will be a single game tie-breaker, with a tie in legal time going into extra time, and a tie in extra time being decided by penalty kicks. The matches will be played in the stadium selected by the General Assembly. Even if the stadium is the home stadium of one of the teams, the matches will be played in a neutral stadium, i.e. the allocation of tickets, seats, dressing rooms, colors of jerseys, etc. will be decided in a fair manner. The winner of the final is the Champion of the Champions League for that season and is entitled to participate in the World Club Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the Champions League for the following season.
There are two ways to qualify for the UEFA Champions League under the rules for qualifying for the Champions League, which are:
I. Qualify through your country's league standings
According to the UEFA Champions League qualification rules, the top three leagues in the UEFA standings will be awarded four places; those ranked 4th to 6th will be awarded three places, 7th to 15th will be awarded two places, and 16th and onwards will only be awarded one place.
Second, qualify by winning last season's Champions League and UEFA Cup.
According to the Champions League qualification rules, last season's Champions League winners and UEFA Cup winners will qualify for direct advancement to the group stage of next season's Champions League proper.
The top three places in the UEFA competition in terms of points are entered directly, with the fourth place taking part first in the third qualifying round; the top two places in the national leagues in 4th to 6th place are entered directly, with the third place taking part first in the third qualifying round;
The winners of the national leagues ranked 7th through 9th advance directly to the group stage, with the runners-up playing in the third round of qualifying; the winners of the national leagues ranked 10th through 15th play in the third round of qualifying, with the league runners-up playing from the 2nd round of qualifying;
The winner of the National League, ranked 16th through 27th, plays from the 2nd round of qualifying; the winner of the National League, ranked 28th through 47th, has to play from the first round of qualifying.
Points for each country are calculated based on the results of that country's clubs in Europe's two major cups over the past five seasons.
The method of calculation is as follows: each team receives two points for a win, one point for a draw, and one point for entering the first stage of the Champions Cup and the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals of the two cups; each season, the points scored by each country's teams are added together and divided by the number of teams from that country participating in the two cups, which produces the points scored by that country in the season;
The current season's score is added to the last four seasons' score to give the country's total. Points are halved and added to the results of the two major cup qualifying tournaments (1 point for a win and 0.5 points for a draw); the Toto Cup is not included in the calculation.
OK, this is the end of this article, I hope it is helpful.
