One football season is drawing to a close but in the blink of an eye the next one will be upon us.
With a European Championship and Copa America this summer, swiftly followed by the usual globe-trotting club trips, many players will again feel they’ve had no rest at all.
When the 2024-25 campaign does begin, fans can expect a few changes to the top competition they know and love.
Most notable is a complete restructure to the UEFA club competitions, the introduction of semi-automated offside technology and different broadcasters for some of the action.
Mail Sport takes a closer look at the major changes next season.
The Champions League is set for its biggest revamp in a generation next season
Semi-automated offside technology is coming to the Premier League in the 2024-25 campaign
A NEW-LOOK CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
For the first time in a generation, the Champions League will undergo a major restructure with all 36 teams ranked together in one big group stage.
That doesn’t mean everyone plays everyone like the ill-fated Super League idea. Instead, each team will play eight group matches, all against different opponents. Four will be at home and four away.
These opponents will be decided by the four seeding pots, with two opponents picked out from each. The idea is there are more exciting and competitive games from the outset.
As we know, England’s Premier League missed out on a fifth group stage spot with Italy and Germany succeeding in getting an extra club in.
Because there are now eight group matchdays, we’ll have the unusual spectacle of Champions League football in January next year to fit it all in.
Aston Villa, Bologna, Brest and Girona are teams from the top European leagues who’ll get to experience Champions League football for the first time.
The top eight in the big group stage qualify automatically for the round of 16, while those in positions 9-24 must compete in a two-legged play-off round to reach the last-16.
Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund meet at Wembley in the Champions League final
Everyone from position 25 and down is eliminated and there will be no Europa League reprieve now.
More games obviously translates to more revenue for those lucky enough to be in the Champions League but it remains to be seen whether it delivers more jeopardy and entertainment as UEFA insist it will.
CHANGES TO THE EUROPA LEAGUE AND CONFERENCE LEAGUE TOO
It isn’t only the Champions League getting a makeover, those changes will be mirrored in the continent’s second and third tournaments as well.
Indeed, the Europa Conference League has a new name for 2024-25… the Conference League. Imaginative.
Tottenham and Manchester United will be in the Europa League and also face eight group games and one giant league table.
Chelsea will be in the Conference League and while that also has 36 teams in a big league, they’ll have less workload with just six group matches.
Manchester United qualified for next season’s Europa League by winning the FA Cup
NEW CHANNELS TO WATCH IT ON…
TNT Sport (formerly BT) has been the place to watch the Champions League for a decade now but their monopoly is about the end.
The latest deal, which kicks in next season, will see Amazon Prime have the first pick of 17 Champions League games on Tuesday nights.
It’s not a great amount – TNT retain 187 of the 204 games in the expanded format – but given Amazon will likely pick the biggest teams to show, you’ll need an extra subscription to watch everything.
For football fans already forking out for Sky Sports and TNT, this is frustrating but some may already have Amazon because of their Premier League coverage.
TNT will continue to show all the Europa League and Conference League action.
Amazon Prime will show Champions League action on Tuesday nights from next season
It remains to be seen if Gary Lineker fronts the BBC’s new Champions League highlights show
…BUT HIGHLIGHTS ON MATCH OF THE DAY!
On the flip side, the BBC will offer fans the first free-to-air Champions League highlights since 2015 in a new midweek Match of the Day.
Details of who’ll present the new show and who’ll be the pundits hasn’t yet been announced but it is expected to be on Wednesday night to take in all the midweek action.
There will also be highlights available in the BBC Sport website and app, plus iPlayer.
SEMI-AUTOMATED OFFSIDES IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE
VAR continues to split opinion (and could yet be voted out by clubs) but the Premier League hope the introduction of semi-automated offside technology (SAOT) will help the situation.
The top-flight clubs voted unanimously to bring it in for next season with the promise it will cut the average length of a VAR offside check by 30 seconds.
The technology is already used in the Champions League and in Serie A, while we also saw it at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Incorrect calls like the Luis Diaz offside goal for Liverpool against Tottenham have led to frustration at VAR offside decisions.
The hope is the new technology will help to eliminate offside errors in the Premier League
The incorrect Luis Diaz offside decision earlier this season undermined trust in the VAR system
Making use of 12 cameras within the stadium which track the ball and 29 data points on each player, the offside technology is capable of making a decision in seconds.
Fans should be able to see an automated 3D image on screens within stadiums.
If it doesn’t work for whatever reason, the existing VAR offside lines drawn manually can still be used.
BETTER CHRISTMAS SCHEDULING… BUT NO WINTER BREAK
Just as Jurgen Klopp departs the Premier League, one of his biggest bugbears has been fixed.
A change to schedules over Christmas and New Year should see at least a 60-hour gap between each club’s fixtures, which should please players, managers and fans alike.
There will also be no Christmas Eve fixtures after Wolves played Chelsea last season.
But the winter break which has been a recent fixture of the calendar has been removed to allow the Premier League to begin in the middle of August.
Chelsea were sent to play at Wolves on Christmas Eve last year – but that won’t happen again
THE END OF FA CUP REPLAYS
Replays in the FA Cup have long been an endangered species and from next season they’ll be consigned to history in the competition proper (that’s the first round onwards).
It was a decision that sparked no little controversy and condemnation as another part of English football culture is tossed away.
But in an agreement with the Premier League, all rounds of the FA Cup will move back to being on a weekend and without the distraction of league fixtures running alongside them.
The FA Cup final will, however, no longer be the end-of-season showpiece as the final round of Premier League games comes a week later.
Bristol City stunned West Ham in an FA Cup replay in January – but they’re now gone
ALL THE EFL
There will be a load more televised Premier League games from the 2025-26 campaign but Sky Sports are ramping up their EFL coverage from August.
As part of a £900m package agreed earlier this year, the broadcaster will show 1,059 live games from the three EFL divisions, the Carabao Cup and the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.
It’s good news for couch potatoes, with Sky launching a new platform to show it all.
But it probably won’t be so positive for match-going fans – especially travelling ones – as 10 games each weekend are moved from Saturday at 3pm to other times.
To mitigate inconvenience, Sky have promises to give fans greater notice of fixtures being moved but we’ve seen similar promises for Premier League coverage count for nothing in the past.