 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
| Next Champions League Dates and opponents |
 |
The second Romanian qualifier will not be known until the last round of league matches on Wednesday 10 June, but all the others are already known. Uefa have officially announced the teams that will take part in next season's Champions League, the first after Platini’s changes, altering access to the group phase and the qualifying rounds.
THE FORMULA The first change for Italian teams, as we know, is that the top three go directly into the group phases. The fourth, Fiorentina, will take part in the new qualifying round. They will still play just one tie, the last one, but in a playoff between the ‘non-champions’ of Europe’s most important tournaments. There will be five matches between the best-placed teams and another five between the champions of the lowest classified leagues: that is, Greece and Switzerland down. There are now a total of four qualifying rounds (but the first is just between 4 ‘minor’ teams), with a division between champion and non-champion teams from the fourth round, which Platini wanted in order to at least ensure five places for the winners of the less important European national leagues. Twenty-two teams have already qualified for the groups, with 55 taking part in the qualifiers.
DEBUTANTES The five places guaranteed to champions could bring a few new teams into the Champions League. However there are already 4 freshman teams among the 22 that have already qualified: Wolfsburg, Rubin Kazan, Az Alkmaar and Unirea Urziceni With the exception of Az, who won their league in 1981, they have all just won their national championships for the first time: bringing new entries from Germany, Russia and Romania.
FIORENTINA’S QUALIFYING ROUND Fiorentina join in for the last round, the so-called playoffs. As always, their opponents will be decided on the basis of the team’s ranking, that is a coefficient based on the team’s European results over the last five years. Fiorentina should be among the non-top seeds (and among the top seeds only if two teams from among Shakhtar, Sporting Lisbon and Panathinaikos fail to qualify from the previous qualifier) and therefore are in danger of meeting difficult opponents. They could really do with avoiding Arsenal and Lyons and would prefer to play Shakhtar, Sporting, Panathinaikos or Stuttgart.
GROUPS AND RANKINGS If Gilardino and company qualify, they will be in Montecarlo on 27 August where the draw will be made for the group phase. This level is unchanged, with 8 groups of 4 without any possible meetings between teams from the same country and with a division into 4 bands, again based on rankings. Barcelona are in the top ranking. Milan are certain to be a top seed thanks to their 5th place in the overall rankings: thus they they won’t meet the reigning champions, the fourth English teams, Bayern and Seville. However, Inter are in the second rank (unless Arsenal and Lyons are knocked out in the qualifying round, which would then place them among the top seeds. They need to avoid a ‘group of death’ with Barcelona, Bordeaux and Wolfsburg. Juventus are currently first (in ranking) in band 3: they just need one of Arsenal, Lyons, Shakhtar or Sporting to be knocked out of the qualifying round for them at least to go into the second draw. Is this important? Yes, it means that they would avoid teams like Lyons, Real Madrid, Porto and would ‘swap them’ with either Rangers, Olympiakos or Besiktas. The third phase is secure for Fiorentina, if they qualify.
THE DATES The games start on 30 June with the first legs of the first qualifying round (San Marino and co.); the draw for Fiorentina’s qualifying round is on 7 August. Fiorentina play on 18-19 August and again on 25-26 August. The group draw is on 27 August in Montecarlo, with Inter, Juve and Milan. The group phase starts on 15-16 September. The final is in Madrid (Bernabeu) on 22 May 2010
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
