New Seeding System For UEFA

New Seeding System For UEFA

It had been long rumored that the European confederation would change the process by which it seeds the top eight teams at the head of each group. Beginning with the 2015-16 tournament, the eight seeds will be handed to the previous year’s Champions League winner and the reigning champions of the top seven remaining countries.

As is currently the case, the top eight seeds are determined by each club’s UEFA coefficient ranking, which takes into account a club’s performance in European competition over five seasons.

On current standings, Arsenal, Atletico Madrid and Porto would be the biggest names drop in status for the Aug. 27, 2015 draw.

Here are the new rules:

For the purpose of the draw, the 32 clubs involved in the group stage are seeded into four groups of eight. The first group comprises the titleholder (top seed) and the domestic champions of the seven top-ranked associations in accordance with the access list. If the titleholder is one of the top seven associations' domestic champions, the group is completed with the champion of the association ranked eight. The other three groups are composed in accordance with the club coefficient rankings established at the beginning of the season.

-2015/16 CL Handbook, Article 13.05

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