https://www.calcioefinanza.it/2023/07/12/champions-league-nuovo-format-2024-2025-come-funziona/

You can read the article but I will summarize it here:

Completely new format.

Number of teams changed from 32 to 36 teams.

The first 32 spots are still the same as before (Top 4 in Serie A)

The additional 4 spots will be:

- An additional place for direct qualification for the first stage will be awarded to the fifth-placed association in the UEFA Nations Rankings (Currently France)

- An additional first stage berth will be awarded to a domestic champion extending the number of teams qualified through the Champions path qualifying rounds in the playoffs from four to five

- An additional place in the league stage will be reserved for the two associations whose clubs achieved the best collective performance in the previous season in UEFA club competitions based on the UEFA rankings. This place will be awarded to the best-placed club in their domestic league after the clubs that qualified directly for the Champions League. (in 2022/23 this was England and Italy)

Champions League new format 2024-2025, the format

Teams will no longer play the same team twice. In the new format, each team will play 8 games to 8 different teams. 4 home and 4 away.

There will be no more groups. The CL will be on giant league of 32 teams and they will be ranked based on number of points they get during these 8 games. They will be using drawing lots to make it balanced based on coefficient.

Champions League new format 2024 2025, the draw

4 pots of 9 teams. Pot 1: CL winner + 8 highest coeff teams. Winning the Scudetto will no longer be worth pot 1 in the Champions League. Pots 2, 3 and 4 include all other teams according to their order in the UEFA Ranking. Each club will be drawn against two opponents from each of the four pots, playing one match at home and one away against them.

New rule: For Associations with 4 or more teams (like Serie A) you CAN draw 1 team from the same league (so 1 out of the 8 games could be vs another serie a team)

Champions League new format 2024 2025, the knockout stage

Top 8 teams with most points from this big group of 36 teams go to the R16. Teams from 9th to 16th will play the teams ranked 17th to 24th in a knockout to play the top 8 teams. 25 through 36 are knocked out of ALL competition. You can no longer get relegated to Europe League from CL.

to incentives the team to play better in the later rounds, the higher teams will be seeded and will play lower teams in the knockouts.

in the R16 teams ranked 1-8th will be seeded and play the winners of the playoff above. Higher seed will play the second leg at home.

So a bracket is formed from that point on until the semi finals.

This means, for example, that playoff matches with the eight seeded teams (on one side) and the eight unseeded teams (on the other) will be drawn. The other eight teams (the first classified, which will directly conquer the round of 16) will instead be spread over the rest of the board so that, for example, the first and second classified in the single group stage can only meet in the final. In this way, as explained by Calcio e Finanza, everyone will know their path towards the last act of the event already starting from the playoffs that will follow the championship phase. The ban on clashes between teams belonging to the same Federation will be lifted throughout the knockout stage.

Among the novelties there will also be the theme of the calendar.

• First stage: 8 matchdays (4 at home and 4 away)

• Knockouts play-offs: 2 matchdays (home and away)

• Round of 16: 2 matchdays (home and away)

• Quarter-finals: 2 matchdays (home and away)

• Semi-finals: 2 matchdays (home and away)

• Final: 1 day

The first change is that the eight matchdays of the league stage will be played over ten weeks of European matches between September and January. Furthermore, the Champions League will have "exclusive" weeks with the program spread over Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, while the other competitions will not be scheduled in the same week.

Finally, as regards times, the time slots of 6.45 pm and 9 pm (Italian time) have been confirmed, with the possibility of an additional slot at 4.30 pm for Europa League and Conference League matches played in areas with relevant time zones ( 2 or more hours in addition to the Central European Time Zone). The changes in terms of timetables primarily concern the last day of the first phase, in which all the matches will be played at the same time, while in the knockout phase it will be possible to see matches in the round of 16 of the Champions League played at 18.45: only from the quarter-finals onwards they will always be played at 21, as well as starting from the semi-finals of Europe and Conference League.