by English clubs will not get a fourth place in Europe despite a second European club competition from 2025 and an expansion of the Women’s Champions League.
The top three teams from the Women’s League Cup currently qualify for the Women’s Champions League and Uefa says it cannot “leave the rest of Europe behind” in the top domestic leagues.
Under the new structure, the WSL’s second- and third-placed teams will enter the new second-tier competition if they lose in the Champions League qualifying rounds – which Arsenal and Manchester United have done this term – but with no team finishing below third place in the WSL will play in Europe.
England’s top division is fourth in the women’s coefficient in Uefa, behind France, Germany and Spain. Currently, the top six nations each get three points in the Women’s Champions League (UWCL), going into different rounds. None of the top six nations will receive any additional qualification spots after 2025, with lower ranked countries receiving additional spots instead.
Speaking to Telegraph Sport, Nadine Kessler, Uefa’s head of women’s football, said: “Access to the UWCL has to be earned.
“We have a responsibility to push development across the Continent. Women’s football is still at a stage where, with a bit of smart investment, and new people coming in, the picture can change quickly.
“Sometimes I feel in women’s football it’s seen as ‘we now have to do everything we can to get the best, very elitist brands out there, get involved and make it big’. No, it has to be balanced, because many clubs and countries have also contributed to where we are today.”
‘You can’t ride on the history of your man’s team’
In October, after his side were beaten by Paris St-Germain in UWCL qualifying, Manchester United manager Marc Skinner said it was “crazy” that the two clubs had come together so soon. Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor, whose side were eliminated in the 2021 and 2022 qualifiers by Real Madrid under the existing format, said: “It’s a shame because you lose teams that would probably be in the group.”
But Kessler, referring directly to either of the Manchester clubs, said: “As much as I’ve smiled at some of the recent comments that some clubs historically can’t get big men involved, I have to say , you should earn your success and you can not ride on the history of your team of men.
“Big brands that are already there, that have invested now [in women’s football] in recent years, and fair enough, if they run women’s football [teams] professionally so they deserve all the credit in the world, but we can’t say now, ‘OK, I’m targeting the top five series, I’m giving you four or five slots’, despite the fact that there is a very small domestic league, compared to what we know from the men’s game for example, and simply saying, ‘OK, the rest, we’ll leave behind’. I think that is not the right approach.
“The WSL is a good example because it only has 12 teams. I think three places for a league with 12 domestic teams is not so bad.”
Question and Answer
What will a revamped Women’s Champions League look like?
Instead of the existing 16-team group stage, with four groups of four, from 2025 the UWCL will switch to an 18-team league stage using the so-called Swiss model.
Each club will play six other clubs once – half at home, half away – rather than playing three opponents home and away.
Kessler said: “I understand that this is a new format that the guys don’t know yet, so it’s quite difficult to ‘get it’ in the first place, but we wanted to create a system where more conflicts there. fair teams earlier.
“I think the other exciting factor is that there are six different opponents [for each team], so every time there is a new, exciting game. That was the best way for this tournament.”
At the end of this 18-team league stage, the top four teams will automatically qualify for the quarter-finals, where they will be seeded with home advantage for their quarter-final. The fifth to 12th place play-offs will play a two-legged play-off for the remaining four quarter-final points.
Who will be participating?
Automatically entering that new 18-team league stage will be the defending UWCL champions, as well as the home title winners of at least the top six nations, as well as the runners-up of the top two nations.
“We’ve put the quality into the group stages with two more runners-up, and the league champions have qualified from three to six straight, that’s a big step forward as well,” Kessler said.
Teams progressing from the reformed qualifying rounds will fill the remaining nine spots.
How has the UWCL qualification process changed?
The qualifying process to separate domestic champions from the lowest-ranked countries from the second- and third-placed teams from the higher-ranked nations will continue, as it currently does, with the ‘Path of Champions’ and ‘Path of the League’ ‘. This ensures that at least four of the nine qualifiers who go through to the 18-team league stage will be from lower domestic leagues.
The other five qualifiers will be second domestic and third place from a high level league such as the WSL.
The ‘League Path’ has been particularly difficult in recent years, resulting in the elimination of last year’s finalists Wolfsburg and last year’s semi-finalists Arsenal this term, as well as Manchester United.
From 2025 onwards, as the domestic runners-up in both will progress directly to the new 18-team league stage, that should theoretically make the ‘League Path’ a little easier for WSL sides to navigate. do. For example, this term, that would mean Wolfsburg and PSG, the team that knocked out Manchester United, avoiding the qualifying rounds.
Another subtle but significant change is that ‘League Path’ teams from higher ranked nations will enter the second qualifying round rather than the first, and this has been done specifically to try and increase the break period for some of those players. which could normally be involved in the final stages of the World Cup, the Euros or the Olympic Games.
“We talked a lot about the welfare of the players,” Kessler said. “That was also something that was taken into account throughout. We really tried to listen to feedback. Of course we want the players to rest, it’s fundamental.”
What format will the new second tier competition use?
The new competition, which has yet to be named, will use a knock-out format, with a total of 44 teams, being played down to a ’round of 16′ after two opening two-leg matches.
Discussing the tournament format, Kessler said: “We felt it was a first step. We wanted to keep it simple. That’s why we went for a simple knockout, and as a starting point, I believe it’s the right call.
“The nice link with the UWCL is that the teams that get knocked out in the earlier rounds get a second chance, affecting this tournament.”
What nights of the week will these games be played?
In the men’s game, the Champions League matches are held on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, while the Europa League and Europa League matches take place on Thursday.
When asked if UWCL games and games for the new second-tier competition would be scheduled on separate nights for broadcast purposes, Kessler explained that a decision had not yet been made, but said: “There is a working group going on right now, along with the clubs . We expect to go to market [putting the broadcast rights out to tender] in the first quarter of next year, and then of course we will always try to schedule games in a way that there is visibility.”
Uefa women’s club competitions operate on four-year cycles so all existing formats will remain in place for next season, the 2024-25 campaign. In 2021, streaming service DAZN secured a four-year deal until 2025 for global rights to broadcast live UWCL matches.
