UEFA have today CONFIRMED that starting next season, the winners of the top seven leagues across Europe will be placed in pot one along with the current winner of the competition. However, if the winners of the Champions League also win their league, then the winner of the eighth best league will be included, which is currently PSV.“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 (see Annex A)."If the titleholder is one of the top seven associations’ domestic champions, the group is completed with the champion of the association ranked eighth. The other three groups are composed in accordance with the club coefficient rankings established at the beginning of the season”.So with the new rule announced, this is what pot one COULD look like next season: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Juventus, Paris St Germain, Zenit and Benfica. Plus the WINNER of this year’s Champions League.

by: http://www.thesportbible.com/articles/uefa-introduce-new-rule-for-new-season-s-champions-league

http://footyroom.com/forum/football-talk/champions-league-seeding-revamped-62273?p=62273

That is terrible rule. Barcelona and real in same group?

Would prefer to see Barca and Real in the finals instead

Barca and Real can't be in the same group... they are both from Spain.

Well... this is horrible news. What was wrong with the coefficient and the usual seeding?

We will see even more groups of death and uneven groups. If the rest of the pots are going to be sorted the same way why only change the 1st pot? There are countries like Spain and England who deserve having more than one team in the 1st pot.

This is bullshit and UEFA is going to regret it. In one group you will have Bayern, Real, Man City and Napoli. While in the second group you will have Zenit, Basel, Celtic and Plzen. More attractive teams will go out early leaving the Champions League last 16 with games like Bayern - Celtic and similar. Champions League will loose it attractiveness..

I think it is a Great News. Finally pot 1 will be consisted of Champions of Their respective leagues. Just like Champions League was Intended to be before. That is why They Call it CHAMPIONS LEAGUE! And rest of the pots will be in Accordance With UEFA coefficiency of Those clubs.

Teams like CSKA or AJax or Benfica deserved to be in pot 1 this year Because They won Their leagues!

Everyone forgot the true meaning of this competition ever since it was changed to 32 clubs. I would Understand to include runners up in the competition Which would make 16 clubs playing (like European International cup), but third and fourth? They Should Go to Europa League and That will make Europa league more prestigious competition and entertaining.

Also, Europa league Should be reduced to 16. Reducing number of clubs will help open up schedule and help Europa League contenders too cope with it . They will not have to play matches on Thursday . CL will give some space for Tuesday or Wednesday This will make Europa League and CL more popular thus making UEFA SUPER CUP Ultimate trophy perhaps . I think this is a great news.

"Teams like CSKA or AJax or Benfica deserved to be in pot 1 this year Because They won Their leagues! "
Yeah, I can totally see how CSKA is better than Real Madrid (if they finish 2nd) to deserve the pot 1.

It is a knockout competition intended for Champions of Domestic leagues . CSKA may build on it making more money , establishing reputation , attracting quality players ( world class players want to play in CL clubs ) and may actually pull off a winner one day , no is ever sure about such things . No one thought that Nothigham Forrest would win it ?

New format gives chance to teams like Benfica make impossible possible . The fact that last time low caliber team won competition was 10 years ago and it was under exceptional manager is ridiculous .

Actually Nottingham was fantastic team then, would really to see them climb their way back. How they can make more when it's knockout competition? That's not giving any sense, when you're playing firstly in the group you have a lot of matches, home matches, fans, tv rights. With knockout you have just little percentage of that.

You're so obessed wth your exceptional manager, aren't you?

No it is still going to be group stage . Exact format like European Cup ( international ) but 16 clubs ( with 8 champions and 7 runner ups and one Europa league CHampion ) , still will play twice away and home in group and later stages . So , it will generate money and more money because they won't have to share with other 16 clubs . ( 32 format ) .

Mmh Because he is exceptional manager to win CL in current format with Porto is exceptional . Did you miss the match yesterday , did not see what happened to Porto ?

And Just like you are obsessed with Thiery Henry , I am obsessed with Jose , before that I was also obsessed with Sir Alex and still like Wenger . That really irritates you ?

Completely agree with Quikzyyy and Tuanis. Coefficients are the only moderately accurate way of comparing teams. If this keeps on going, a team as good as Atletico or Valencia will actually be 3rd or 4th seed, which is tremendously irritating. They will have more difficult groups and will have a more difficult time getting out of their respective groups. Some groups are also going to be distorted in the sense that the 4th seed might be better than the 1st seed (Valencia > Ajax).

Exactly, but more like (Valencia > PSV)

The moment they avoid putting 2 teams from the same country in the same group and i dont have any problem, that would make the competition less predictible.

Then with this new rule you would get Chelsea, Arsenal, United and City to the one group. Lol, that could be fun as hell!

Yes sure Valencia might be better than Ajax . But we are talking about CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Competition . We can argue Atletic Bilbao is better than BATE Borisov , Liverpool better than Basel , Arsenal is better than Monaco , City is better CSKA , Real Madrid is better than Atletico ( barely beat them ) but this is CL no teams are immune to being beaten by other team and eventually being eliminated .

And Why so worry ? It is a good rule . It is a step towards resurrecting true meaning of Champions League . Champions of their domestic leagues should not be judged by UEFA coefficient . ( although I would reduce from 32 to 16 too )

Seed 1 will have all the champions , 2,3,4 will go by UEFA coefficient . It will be a real random draw not the one we have one . What this also does is weaken the strength of Pot 1, and strengthen Pot 2, meaning that there is a lot less benefit in being in Pot 1 as you could still be drawn against Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Porto, Wolfsburg, PSG or Arsenal, or Man City or Man United based on UEFA coefficient . In the end we will see Pot 2 is just as strong, and the "best /easiest" draws will be received by a Pot 2 team that gets to meet an "easy" Pot 1 side.

Also I don't understand WHY TEAM THAT DOES NOT EVEN REACH SEMIS keeps being seed 1 . This is injustice . I am glad this rule is applied now . I want Chelsea to win against best not getting easy ride and if we don't then it is alright because it is CL any team can win match against any other team and we will just proudly say that we lost against very good teams .

IF you want to be best you have to win against the best . Simple .

^ I thought you wanted a 5th spot for England not that long ago...

Yes i still want it . those 3 spots should go to europa league if ever had say in this . Europa league will become more competitive more attractive ( also reduced to 16 ) and UEFA Super Cup will be truly a Super Cup .

They should deserve it first.

They will deserve it . Samething people said when EPL asked for fourth place . Same talk .