CHANGES FOR THE 2018-2021 CYCLE

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

1 - UCL Group structure changes
** 1.a - UCL and UEL Title Holders will start at Group Stage - 2 clubs
** 1.b - Top four associations will send 4 clubs directly to the Group Stage - 4*4= 16 clubs
** 1.c - Fifth and sixth associations will send 2 clubs directly - 2*2=4 clubs
** 1.d - Seventh, eight, ninth, and tenth associaciations will send 1 club directly - 4*1= 4 clubs
** 1.e - League champions of other associations will play at UCL Champions Path and 4 clubs to qualify to the Groups - 4 clubs
** 1.f - One club from 11 associations ranked fifth through fifteenth will play at League Path and 2 clubs to qualify to the Groups - 2 clubs

2 - UCL Champions Path changes
** 2.a - Four clubs from 44 associations will qualify to the groups (instead of 5). A Preliminary Round is added to the fixtures.
Preliminary Round will be played by four clubs at one of the clubs's venue. In a mini tournament, four clubs play each other once at semi finals and two clubs will be eliminated. Two remaining clubs will play the final and the winner qualifies to the Qualifying Round 1 (QR1).
33 clubs from associations ranked 18th to 51th join QR1 and 17 clubs will proceed to QR2.
3 clubs from 15th, 16th, and 17th associations join QR2 and 10 clubs will proceed to QR3.
2 clubs from 12th and 14th associations join QR3 and 6 clubs will proceed to Play-Off Round.
2 clubs from 11th and 12th associations join Play-Off Round and 6 clubs will proceed to the Groups.
** 2.b - Previously, the clubs eliminated at QR3 and PO Rounds were continuing to play at UEL. Starting from this cycle, the clubs eliminated at Preliminary Round, QR1, and QR2 will also continue playing at UEL.

3 - UCL League Path changes
** 3.a - Two clubs from 11 associations will qualify to the groups (instead of 5). Another round is added and there will be fixtures at QR2 as well.
There will be no clubs from the top 4 associations at League Path anymore.
6 clubs finished second at associations 10th to 15th play at QR2 and 3 to qualify to QR3.
2 clubs finished third at associations 5th and 6th and 3 clubs finished second at associations 7th, 8th, and 9th join QR3 and 4 clubs will proceed to PO Round
4 clubs play the PO Round and 2 clubs will proceed to Groups.
** 3.b - The clubs eliminated at QR2 will also continue at UEL.

Adjustments to be made because of the Title Holders of UCL.
If the UCL Title Holder has already qualified to Groups through the articles 1.b, 1.c, or 1.d above, the spot allocated to UCL Title Holder at 1.a will not be used. That empty spot is filled with a club from UCL Champions Path. That will create another empty spot at PO Round, and it will be filled with a club from QR3, and so on.
The actual adjustments will be as follows:
The champion of 11th association will start at Groups,
The champion of 13th association will start at PO Round.
The champion of 15th association will start at QR3.
The champions of 18th and 19th associations will start at QR2.

Adjustments to be made because of the Title Holders of UEL.
If the UEL Title Holder has already qualified to Groups through the articles 1.b, 1.c, or 1.d above, the spot allocated to UEL Title Holder at 1.a will not be used. That empty spot is filled with a club from UEL League Path. That will create another empty spot at PO Round, and it will be filled with a club from QR3, and so on.
The actual adjustments will be as follows:
The qualifier from 5th association will start at Groups.
The qualifier from 10th and 11th associations will start at QR3.

An association can send max 5 clubs to UCL.
If both UCL and UEL Title Holders from the same association and neither have finished their league in top four places, the number of clubs eligible to play at Groups becomes 6. In that case only three clubs from the league table qualifies to Groups and the fourth will plat at UEL.

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE

All the associations other than Liechtenstein and Kosovo send more than one club to UEL. The cup winners of each association will be the first club in their line-ups, unless the club qualified to UCL.

1 - UEL Group structure changes
** 1.a - Top five associations will send 5 clubs directly to the Group Stage - 5*2= 10
** 1.b - Associations ranked 6th through 12th will send 1 club each to the Group Stage - 7*1= 7 clubs
** 1.c - 13 clubs will join from UEL Main Path qualifying matches - 13 clubs
** 1.d - 8 clubs will join from UEL Champions Path qualifying matches - 8 clubs
** 1.e - 4 losing clubs of UCL Champions Path - PO Round will join - 4 clubs
** 1.f - 2 losing clubs of UCL League Path - PO Round will join - 2 clubs
** 1.g - 4 losing clubs of UCL League Path - PO Round will join - 4 clubs

UEL Main Path Changes:
A Preliminary Round is added to the fixtures. 16 clubs participate and 8 proceed to QR1.
86 clubs join at QR1 and 47 to proceed to QR2.
27 clubs join at QR2 and 37 to proceed to QR3.
12 clubs join at QR3, 3 clubs losing at UCL League Path - QR2 move to QR3 and 26 to proceed to PO Round.
No clubs join, so 13 to proceed to Groups at PO Round.

UEL Champions Path:
This path is created in this cycle. All the clubs losing at UCL Champions Path Round will join UEL here. No other clubs will play in this path.
It will start at QR2 with 3 losing clubs of UCL Champions Path Preliminary Round and 17 losing clubs of UCL Champions Path QR1. 10 to proceed to QR3.
10 losing clubs of UCL Champions Path QR2 will join at QR2 and 10 to proceed to PO Round.
6 losing clubs of UCL Champions Path QR3 will join at PO Round and 6 clubs proceed to Groups.

Adjustments to be made because of the Title Holders of UCL.
The effects of the adjustment made at UCL are minimum. There will be 16 losing clubs at UCL Champions Path QR1 instead of 17.
UEL Champions Path QR2 will start with 19 clubs at QR2. One club will draw bye from the lots and proceed along with the 9 other winners of the round to QR3.

Adjustments to be made because of the Title Holders of UEL.
The adjustment made at UCL League Path QR2 causes a void at UEL Main Path QR3.
The cup winner from the 18th country will start at QR3.
The cup winner from the 25th country will start at QR2.
The cup winners from the 50th and 51st countries will start at QR1.

CLUBS COEFFICIENT CHANGES

Changes are made for the Qualifying Roungd only. There will be no awarding points to the eliminated clubs at UCL Qualifying Rounds anymore. They will continue playing at UEL and will be awarded there.
The points awarded are changed a little.
Please see:

Coefficients