Military City Car, Gun, Magpie Thorn 6 choose 2! ESPN: The first-tier team in the Champions League next season may face two Premier League teams

According to ESPN, the non-Premier League first team in the Champions League next season may have to play against two Premier League teams in the league stage.

The Premier League will have 6 teams participating in the Champions League next season, namely Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Newcastle and Tottenham. According to the rules of the new Champions League match system, teams from the same association cannot be drawn together during the league stage, and each team can play up to two opponents from other associations.

If there are no more than three teams in the same level of England, then the above rules can be maintained.

Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea have been confirmed to be the first team in the Champions League next season, Arsenal second, Tottenham Hotspur likely third, and Newcastle fourth.

To meet the rules of the new competition system, the remaining 6 non-English teams (Barcelona, ​​Bayern, Dortmund, Inter Milan, Paris and Real Madrid) must play group matches with two English teams.

Such rules will not affect the opponent situation of the English team, but will increase the difficulty of the schedule of non-English teams in the first team. For example, if Barcelona draws against Bayern and Inter in the first-tier team, they will have to draw two teams from Arsenal, Tottenham and Newcastle.

ESPN Explanation Principle↓

• The three English clubs in the first level must have six matches with the first level team, but they will not fight each other.

• This makes the first-tier six non-English teams need to play a total of 6 games with the English team.

• Arsenal then needs to choose two first-tier teams as opponents (excluding England teams), and the total number of matches between English clubs and first-tier teams has increased to eight games.

• Tottenham need to select two first-tier non-English teams, so that the total number of matches between English clubs and first-tier teams reaches ten games.

• In the end, Newcastle also selected two first-tier non-English teams, locking the total number of matches between the English club and the first-tier team to twelve games.

• Through this mechanism, the first six non-English teams will each play two matches against the English team (total twelve).

Although UEFA has not fully confirmed the draw rules for the 2025/26 Champions League, this is the only way for them to follow the rules.

If Arsenal also enters the first level, then there will be four English clubs in the first level, and UEFA will have to modify the draw rules to allow English clubs to play a game against each other during the league stage.