Women's Champions League. In the 2023/2024 season, for the first time in history, Ukraine will be represented by two teams: competition format

30.05.2023 18:10

Photo by uefa.com

The 2023/2024 season in the UEFA Women's Champions League will be the third in a new format — with a group stage with matches at home and away in a round-robin format.

The current format of the Women's Champions League is as follows.

Conducting system

The main stage of the competition is the group stage with the participation of 16 clubs. The teams will be divided into four quartets, in which they will play each other at home and away from October to December.

The winners of the first two places will receive tickets to the 1/4 finals. In the quarter-finals and semi-finals, the teams will play two matches each, the final will consist of one match and will be held in Bilbao, Spain.

Four teams will receive direct tickets to the group stage, and the winners of the remaining 12 places will be determined by qualifying within the Champions' Path (seven places) and the Leagues' Path (five places).

Qualification in both ways will be the same. In the first round, the teams will compete in the format of mini-tournaments, the winners of which will advance. In the second round, the teams will be divided into pairs and they will play each other at home and away. If there are more than 50 participants, a preliminary round will be held within the Champions Path where the teams will play each other home and away.

Number of clubs from each association

The list of participants is based on the women's club rating of the UEFA associations at the end of the 2021/2022 season, where Ukraine took the 15th place.

The top 6 rating associations — France, Germany, Spain, England, Sweden and the Czech Republic — will field three teams each.

The next 10 associations are Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Norway, Scotland, Belarus, Ukraine and Austria - delegate two teams each (for the first time in history, Ukraine will be represented in European Cups by two participants at the same time). 

Other associations will be represented by one team.

The stage from which the teams will start the tournament

The champion of the 2023 Champions League and the champions of the three best associations (France, Germany and Spain) will immediately enter the group stage.

The champions of other associations will enter the Path of Champions in the qualifiers. Association champions ranked fourth to sixth (England, Sweden and the Czech Republic) will start the tournament from the second round, the rest, including Vorskla Poltava, from the first (unless there is a preliminary round, in which the number of teams , starting at this stage, will depend on the number of participants).

The vice-champions of the six strongest associations (France, Germany, Spain, England, Sweden and the Czech Republic) will start the tournament with the second round of the Path of League Representatives.

The holders of the third places of these six associations, as well as the holders of the second places of the following 10 associations (Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Norway, Scotland, Belarus, Ukraine and Austria) will enter the fight from the first round of the Way of representatives of the leagues. Among them will be "Kryvbas" from Kryvyi Rih.

All Russian clubs have been suspended from participating in the Women's Champions League for the 2023/2024 season.

The final table and scorers of the championship of Ukraine among women's teams