Liverpool to be part of history as Champions League announces another major change

With Liverpool on track to return to the Champions League next season, they will be met with a whole host of new changes, including a major change when it comes to the draw.

The Reds are the favourites to win the Europa League, which would grant them automatic qualification into the tournament but they are likely to secure their spot in Europe's premier cup competition via their league position in the Premier League.

When they return, they will experience a completely different format. Instead of 32 teams, split into eight groups of four, it will be one long league-table format including 36 teams. Teams will then play eight matches in the new league phase, playing half of those matches at home and half of them away. Then, the top eight teams will automatically qualify for the knockout stages, while teams in 9th-24th will enter a two-legged play-off fixture for the remaining eight places. The losers of the play-off fixture will be eliminated and will not drop down to the Europa League. Moreover, a completely new announcement was confirmed today: the draw will no longer be done by people and a computer software will be used. It's said it will reduce the time it would take to complete the draw significantly, due to the new extended format.

Sky Sports Kaveh Solhekol has confirmed the latest changes on X, 'New expanded Champions League format from next season means computers are going to be used to make the draw. UEFA draw simulations have shown that a manual draw for the new format would take between three and four hours and require 900 balls.  'Instead a new hybrid method will be used - clubs will be drawn manually then the computer will take over and select their eight opponents. The new hybrid draw is expected to take around 35 minutes - the same duration as the current draw for the existing format. An English IT company is coming up with the software which will carry out the digital part of the draw. There will also be two backup software systems and the draw will be audited.'