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A brand new Champions League campaign is upon us, and this one promises to be very different to anything we have seen before.
UEFA has decided to switch things up this season by making several new changes to the competition.
Some fans may welcome a refresh, having grown weary of watching Real Madrid pick up the European crown year after year for much of the past decade.
But the decision has been made, and we are about to find out whether it was all worth it. Here, Mail Sport takes you through everything new in the Champions League this season.
Jude Bellingham’s Real Madrid are the defending champions, but the Champions League will be very different this season
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin (pictured) has brought in a number of new changes
New teams
One of the ideas behind the revamped Champions League is to give new teams a chance, and we will see five teams make their first-ever appearance in the competition this term.
One of these sides is Aston Villa after their stunning campaign under Unai Emery saw them finish fourth in the Premier League last season.
Villa famously won the European Cup in 1982, but have never been involved in the Champions League since its inception a decade later.
Villa will be joined by fellow first-timers Bologna, Brest, Girona and Slovan Bratislava in the league phase.
Slovan Bratislava have previously made the play-offs of the Champions League but have never been part of the main draw. That will change this week.
Aston Villa will play in the Champions League for the first time this season
They will be joined by Girona who pulled off a shock by finishing third in LaLiga last term
New format
The Champions League is eight groups of four teams with the top two making it through to the knockout stages, right? Not any more.
Forget groups, they’re a thing of the past. Now we have a league phase.
This season will see 36 teams enter the competition rather than 32, and they will all be placed into one league.
Each team will then have eight matches – four at home and four away. The top eight teams will qualify automatically for the last 16, while the teams placed 9-24 will face each other in a qualifying round to make the knockout stages.
The sides that finish 25-36 will be eliminated and will not drop down into the Europa League or Europa Conference League.
The draw for the Champions League is now automated, with the new format containing 36 teams in one league phase
New number of games
With extra teams comes more games, which hasn’t gone down particularly well with the players.
Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson has admitted players are ‘tired’ of being ignored over fixture pile-up, but his complaints appear to have fallen on deaf ears.
Last season, there were 125 matches in the Champions League. That will increase by 64 games to 189 this term.
The two teams that make the final will have to play 17 matches along the way. And then there’s the small matter of the new Club World Cup next summer.
It promises to be survival of the fittest.
Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson has complained about the number of games being played nowadays, with this season’s Champions League set to have 64 extra matches
New schedule
Champions League matches will no longer be restricted to Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
There will also be Thursday night matches, including six this week.
The standout Thursday game this time around sees Arsenal travel to Europa League winners Atalanta, while Atletico Madrid and Barcelona will also be in action against RB Leipzig and Monaco respectively.
What about the 17:45 kick off, you ask?
That is still part of the schedule, meaning fans can rush home to watch Sparta Prague host Red Bull Salzburg on Wednesday.
Arsenal are set to play on Thursday this week, just three days before they face Man City
Mikel Arteta may have to consider rotating his squad when they take on last season’s Europa League winners Atalanta
New badge
A new Champions League badge will be on show this season. Not that you’d notice on first glance.
Everyone has grown familiar with the iconic badge over the years – the white football with black stars plastered all over it.
Well, that hasn’t changed at all.
But there is now a black border around the football that was not previously there. How exciting!
The new badge (right) has a black border around the football that was not present before
New anthem
The Champions League anthem is arguably the most iconic in football. Players dream of singing it when they line up before a game.
But it has been slightly tweaked ahead of this season’s competition.
Much like the badge, the refinements are very minor, with the most noticeable difference being the added use of trumpets in the background following the re-recording by British music director and composer Tony Britten.
The lyrics remain the same, with the tune still finishing with the immortal words ‘The champions!’
New TV deals
Multiple new TV deals have been agreed for the revamped Champions League.
Fans will be delighted to hear that Europe’s elite competition is heading back to free-to-air TV, with the BBC set to show highlights of matches on Wednesday nights at 22:40. Their coverage will be fronted by Mark Chapman, who has emerged as the new frontrunner to succeed Gary Lineker on Match of the Day.
Highlights will also be available on the BBC Sport website from 22:00 on Wednesday nights.
Meanwhile, Amazon Prime have struck a deal to show matches throughout the campaign.
Mark Chapman will present the Champions League highlights show on the BBC on Wednesday nights
Amazon Prime will show the top Tuesday game on each matchday, and have a star-studded line up of presenters, pundits and commentators
They will provide coverage of the top Tuesday game of each matchday, with Gabby Logan presenting the action. She will be joined by an all-star punditry team that includes Frank Lampard and Daniel Sturridge, while Alan Shearer will be alongside Jon Champion in the commentary box.
AC Milan vs Liverpool – a repeat of the 2005 and 2007 finals – has got the nod just ahead of Sporting Lisbon vs Lille on Amazon Prime tonight.
