Champions to benefit élite competition

UEFA hopes that the presence of 18 national champions in the 32-team group stage will make the UEFA Champions League an even more attractive competition this season.

High point
The group-stage lineup shows a higher number of actual titleholders in the UEFA Champions League than in any campaign since 1999/00, as changes made to the qualifying format take effect for the new term.

Champions Route
Two years ago the UEFA Executive Committee decided to boost the qualification prospects of clubs from outside Europe's leading football nations by agreeing format changes for the 2009 to 2012 period which included: giving direct access to the group stage to three more national champions (12 instead of nine); and instituting a Champions Route and Non-Champions Route in both the third qualifying round and new play-off round, designed to keep domestic champions apart from the other qualifiers.

'More accessible to champions'
UEFA President Michel Platini heralded the result of these positive developments in his speech before the group-stage draw in Monaco last month, saying: "Two years ago, I expressed my desire to see the Champions League become even more attractive by making it more accessible to champions, including champions of countries that are not necessarily under the spotlight. Some people thought this was a risky gamble. However, two years later, I can declare that the gamble has paid off."

Debutants
The 2009/10 UEFA Champions League will, in fact, see more debutant teams than any season since 1992/93, as eight clubs prepare to make group-stage bows. Five of the new boys qualified directly as national titleholders: FC Unirea Urziceni, R. Standard de Liège, VfL Wolfsburg, FC Rubin Kazan and AZ Alkmaar, representing Romania, Belgium, Germany, Russia and the Netherlands. The Champions Route in qualifying also had an impact, as Switzerland's FC Zürich secured a first group-stage appearance from the third qualifying round, and Debreceni VSC and APOEL FC, of Hungary and Cyprus, did so from the second. Other champions advancing via this path include Olympiacos FC and Maccabi Haifa FC.

'Synonymous with excellence'
UEFA President Platini added that all the clubs taking part in the UEFA Champions League had earned the right to participate in "a competition which has lost none of its charm or attractiveness, a competition synonymous with excellence, a competition – the competition – which captures the imagination of tens of millions of football followers throughout the world".

'Spreading the benefits'
David Taylor, UEFA's General Secretary, was equally heartened by the new names on a UEFA Champions League cast list also enriched by ten former winners of the European Champion Clubs' Cup. "It's a very interesting and welcome development for the UEFA Champions League," Mr Taylor told uefa.com users in a live chat from Monaco. "There are massive financial rewards in competing in the UEFA Champions League and it's better for European football that these benefits are spread across European football.

'Long-term view'
"I think these resources will allow European football to develop more across the continent than in a smaller area. Maybe the established clubs will have it easier this season, but we are taking the long-term view. Maybe champions of medium-sized countries such as Hungary and Switzerland can compete better and be more closely involved at the top table of European football."