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UEFA have explained two major Champions League rule changes that could end up benefitting Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham. The Premier League trio get their latest European campaigns underway this week.
The Gunners take on Athletic Bilbao in Spain, while Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea will entertain German champions Bayern Munich. After winning last season’s Europa League, Tottenham have been drawn to face Villarreal in their opening fixture.
This season’s tournament represents the second campaign in which the revamped league stage will be the format, having been introduced by UEFA last term. Following its debut campaign, European football’s organisers have decided to make a slight tweak to the rules.
It has been announced that any clubs who seal an automatic quarter-final spot will play the second-leg of that match-up at home.
UEFA’s updated Regulations of the Champions League document read: "Seeded teams, i.e. teams ranked 1 to 4 after the league phase, play the return leg at home in the quarter-finals, and teams ranked 1 and 2 also play the return leg of the semi-finals at home. If a seeded team is beaten in any round, the team that eliminates them takes over their seeding position in the bracket path (i.e. the higher ranking for seeding purposes is not recalculated after each round).”
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Arsenal were one of the sides to have fallen foul of that guideline last season having qualified automatically, only to learn that their quarter-final second leg vs Real Madrid would be played at the Santiago Bernabeu instead of at Emirates Stadium.
Meanwhile, there have been changes to the rules around squads. Clubs are currently only allowed to name up to 25 players for their Champions League squads, with a maximum of 17 who are not ‘locally trained’.
And that has led to a number of high-profile players being left out including Mathys Tel, Facundo Buonanotte and more. However, UEFA have announced an initiative that allows clubs to name an additional temporary replacement in case of any injuries or illness during the first six matchdays of the league stage.
The new rules read: "The Executive Committee approved an amendment to the 2025/26 UEFA men’s club competitions’ regulations to admit the temporary replacement of a maximum of one outfield player with long-term injury or illness during the league phase until matchday 6 included."
That news will no doubt be music to the ears of Thomas Frank, who previously bemoaned the rules after leaving Tel off of his official squad list. He said: “That was an extremely difficult decision.
“I also think in many ways it was a bit unfair. The UEFA lists are not big enough. The load is getting more and more on the players. We need a bigger squad. I cannot understand why we need to limit ourselves.
“I like the idea of club-trained players by the way. I needed to name it before I really knew ‘Matty’ [Mathys Tel]. I think the way he handled it was extremely mature. It was really impressive.”
The Champions League league stage runs all the way up until next January. Each of the top nine teams will book an automatic spot in the quarter-final, while the following 18 teams enter a playoff to reach the next round.
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