As UEFA held the Champions League draw earlier this week, they have confirmed next season’s competition may have a different look.
The new seeding system would rank the previous Champions League winner with the top seven domestic club winners from throughout Europe. This would prevent top domestic winners from facing each other in the group stage.
For the upcoming competition, Group A features Juventus (Italy), Atletico Madrid (Spain), Ajax (Netherlands) and Malmo (Sweden). All four teams won their country’s domestic championship last season.
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In this season’s draw, Chelsea and Arsenal were both in Pot 1 and were ranked higher than Manchester City, the defending English champions. Manchester City drew a particularly tough group, with matches against German champions Bayern Munich, along with trips to face Roma and CSKA Moscow.
Talks for a system change began earlier in the year, with UEFA president Michel Platini hoping it will benefit the competition by rewarding domestic honors. UEFA meets September 18th in Nyon, Switzerland, where the Executive Committee can vote to enact the change.