The Champions League and Europa League will be in a completely new format from the 2024-25 season. UEFA decided a long time ago to completely change the way these two competitions are held. In the future, there will be 36 participants and the group stage will take place in a completely different way. Instead of the previous 8 groups of 4 teams, there will be one joint league, with each of the participants playing 8 matches against 8 different opponents (4 at home and 4 away), instead of the previous 6 matches against 3 opponents. The best 8 teams in the final ranking will advance to the 1/8-finals, and those from 9 to 24 will play eliminations among themselves to determine the remaining 8 teams in the next stage.
All this will require changes in the football calendar, as the group stage will no longer end in December, but will continue until the end of January. This could cause problems in all championships, and especially in the Premier League when the calendar is said to be overbooked around the New Year.
The first round of the Europa League will coincide with the third round of the League Cup. Then, two of the European rounds in December and January will face the 1/4-finals and 1/2-finals of the same competition. But that’s not all, because the last rounds in Europe at the end of January fall on a date when, in principle, a full round of the Premier League should be played.
This means that the announcements coming from England about the FA Cup and the League Cup and their displacement, that is, and eventual cancellation, may happen faster than expected.
