UEFA Convenes in Monaco to Resolve FIFA's Governance Crisis Ahead of Champions League Draw

Monaco is once again setting the clock for the Champions League. This Thursday, at 6 p.m. local time, the league phase draw takes place featuring 36 teams, the format that has completely transformed the way the competition is experienced since last season. But before the first ball comes out, the same city will play host to a discussion that has little to do with the pitch: the governance crisis rattling FIFA.

Two hours before the gala, most of UEFA's 55 member federations will meet under the leadership of Aleksander Ceferin to discuss face to face, for the first time since the controversy broke, Gianni Infantino's failed attempt to sell stakes in World Cup profits to private investors, a plan led by Joshua Kushner's group that ultimately collapsed. That same meeting will also formally withdraw the boycott threat against FIFA competitions that UEFA itself had put on the table in response.

Infantino will not be showing up in Monaco, a notable absence considering he presented this very draw for years, back when he was UEFA's secretary general before jumping to the FIFA presidency in 2016. He is now seeking re-election in March, but UEFA has already made clear it has no confidence in his leadership. And here is the question hanging over the corridors: who could succeed him? One name gaining traction is Nasser al-Khelaïfi, president of the reigning Champions League holders, Paris Saint-Germain, though he has yet to say whether the job interests him.

A Draw with New Faces

On the sporting side, PSG headlines a group of 36 clubs that runs the gamut: the historic Real Madrid, with its 15 continental titles, alongside Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Arsenal, finalists in last season's edition. But what stands out most about this edition are the newcomers: Como (Italy), coached by Cesc Fabregas, Austria's LASK, Norway's Viking and Azerbaijan's Sabah, a club founded only in 2017. Sabah's coach, Valdas Dambrauskas, has a story that stands out on its own: the money he won as a young contestant on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" in his native Lithuania helped pay for a coaching course in England. Another memorable detail is that Yaya Toure, the former Manchester City and Barcelona midfielder, became the first African coach to lead a team, Slovan Bratislava, into the main phase after getting through the qualifying round.

How the Draw Works

UEFA's computer software assigns each club eight opponents (four at home, four away), drawing two from each pot, with no matchups between teams from the same country. Pot placement is based on the European ranking of the last five years, and Pot 1 brings together PSG, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Inter, Manchester City, Arsenal, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.

The first matchday is played between September 8 and 10, with six rounds running through December and the eighth and final matchday on January 27. The top eight in the standings advance directly to the round of 16 in March; those finishing ninth through twenty-fourth enter a February playoff to fight for the remaining eight spots, and everyone from twenty-fifth down is eliminated. Altogether, the clubs will share close to 2.5 billion euros (roughly $2.9 billion), one more sign of just how much this tournament moves today.