Italy are currently the most likely nation to have five teams competing in the newly-formatted 2024-25 edition of the Champions League, which will expand from 32 teams to 36 from next season onwards.
Instead of the traditional group stage format, all 36 teams will be ranked against each other in a league table system.
Every team will play eight matches against eight different opponents, with the top eight sides qualifying directly for the round of 16. Teams ranking in ninth to 24th place will contest in a play-off round, with the winners also progressing to the round of 16.
There will, however, be four more teams involved from next season onwards.
Of those four slots, two positions will be assigned to teams from the two highest-rated nations based on the ranking of individual federations according to information from La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Due to the success of various Italian sides in European competitions in recent seasons, Italy are currently in the lead in terms of UEFA’s ranking system with 16,571 points. Germany rank second with 15,500, and England are currently third with 14,625.
Those figures can still change based on results in this year’s UEFA competitions.
However, if Italy still come out on top by the end of the 2023-24 season, there will be five Italian sides involved in the 2024-25 edition of the Champions League.
A tad strange for the extra spot to go to a league that hasn’t produced a winner of the top two european competitions for well in excess of a decade. In fact, I don’t think an Italian team has won the Uefa cup/europa league this century.
Well yes Alberto thats because theres a blind spot when it comes to Roma.
What a muppet!! An Italian team was in the Champions League final last year ( and don’t forget the other two) , and you are saying that they haven’t won it . The only team who did better than them is the team who won it , but they did better than everyone else!! Decade he said!!
@Albert
Yes, Serie A’s trophy haul over the last 20 years has been abysmal, but we’re talking about recent combined results. Decades ago don’t matter much now because those players are all long retired.