Phil SumblerThe Swansea City Ladies team will find out their Champions League fate on Friday when the draw for the 1st Round of next season’s competition takes place.
The Swans will represent Wales for the fifth time in the competition in a format that looks considerably different to the one that was impacted by the Covid pandemic last season.
44 league champions joining in Round 1 (there is a separate stream for countries whose 2nd/3rd placed teams can also qualify); for the Champions stream, which Swansea will join, there is now only two pots, seeded and unseeded, with two from each pot being drawn to form groups of four, which will continue to play in a single host country.
Instead of all four clubs playing each other as per the old arrangement, the competition is knock-out from the start; a seeded team will face one of the non-seeds in their group and the winner will go on to play the victor of the other fixture, with the winner of that game progressing to the 2nd Round and the two losers having a third-place play-off. The 2nd Round continues to be knock-out over two legs, with the Group Stage now coming after this and before the quarter-finals.
UEFA have also redesigned the financial distribution model, with leagues benefitting, not just competing clubs which is good news for the WPL should the Swans progress further into the competition.
The draw takes place on Friday at 12pm BST and can be watched live on UEFA.com, with the fixtures to be played on Wednesday 18th August and Saturday 21st August.
