New UEFA Rule Changes Home Venues in the Champions League

The Champions League league phase draw is generating high anticipation and brings an important change to home venues due to a new rule created by the UEFA Club Competitions Committee. The measure directly affects recurring matchups between European football giants in the tournament's first stage.

The home venue rule

The new restriction stipulates that a team cannot host an opponent they have already faced at their stadium in the previous two seasons of the league phase. The main objective is to diversify league phase matchups and prevent the same fixture from occurring with the same host for three consecutive seasons.

The impact on Liverpool and Real Madrid

Liverpool will not be able to host Real Madrid at Anfield in the first phase of the competition. Since the teams faced each other at the English stadium in the last two editions, a third consecutive clash at the same venue cannot take place. Should the draw pit the teams against each other, the match will have to be held at the Santiago Bernabéu, with the Spanish club as the host.

The situation for Inter Milan and Arsenal

The same restriction applies to a potential matchup between Inter Milan and Arsenal. In the last two seasons, the Italians hosted the English side in Milan. If the clubs face each other again this season, the home advantage will have to be reversed, and the match will take place with the Italian club playing away from home.

Draw and format details

The league phase draw of the competition features 36 teams distributed across pots. In the current model, each team plays eight matches against eight different opponents—two from each of the four pots, with one home match and one away match against teams from each pot.

With information from GE, A Bola.