How AI-led 24-25 Champions League draw for the new league phase works

UEFA are set to use an AI-facilitated supercomputer to make the draw for the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League. This will be the first year the competition is expanded to 36 teams in a league structure rather than traditional group stages.

The draw will see 36 teams divided into eight pots depending on their UEFA coefficient ranking. The clubs will first be drawn manually from each pot before the supercomputer will be used to select their eight different league fixtures. The computer will factor in country protection to prevent the same-league clubs from facing one another, with one club facing a maximum of two opponents from the same country.

Sky Sports broadcaster Kaveh Solkehkol explained that the AI software was designed by UK-based IT firm AE Live and that Ernst & Young will audit the draw. The draw will be held on Thursday (August 29), and clubs are still participating in play-offs to try to reach the newly formatted Champions League league phase.

The pots for the 2024-25 Champions League draw are as follows:

Pot 1: Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Barcelona

Pot 2: Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta, Juventus, Benfica, Arsenal, Club Brugge, Shakhtar Donetsk, AC Milan

Pot 3: Feyenoord, Sporting CP, PSV Eindhoven, Celtic, Five TBD

Pot 4: AS Monaco, Aston Villa, Bologna, Girona, Stuttgart, Sturm Graz, Brest, Two TBD

Where is the 2024-25 Champions League final?

This season’s Champions League final will take place at the Allianz Arena in Munich on May 31, 2025. It will be the second time the 75,000-capacity stadium hosts the final, as it was the venue of the 2012 final, which Bayern Munich famously lost to Chelsea on penalties.

Munich will be expected to try and live up to the spectacle London put on when Wembley hosted last season’s final. Real Madrid won 2-0 against Borussia Dortmund to extend their European title record to 15, and they’ll be eager to defend their crown by reaching the final in Germany.