UEFA WOMEN'S Champions League 2021/22

You have to wonder if UEFA will accept them or if Slovakia will have no entry.

 

Extract of the rules:

To be eligible to participate in the competition, clubs must:

1. have qualified for the competition on sporting merit;

If there is any doubt as to whether a club fulfils other admission criteria than those defined in Paragraph 4.01(c) and Paragraph 4.01(d), the UEFA administration may refer the case to the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body, which decides without delay upon the admission in accordance with the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations.

UEFA have the right to refuse the Slovakian entry if it is not deemed on sporting merit.

 

It looks like PSG will go directly to the Group stage and Lyon to the qualifying round and of course will be seeded with their huge coefficient.

 

Update from my December post:

Round 1 entries in the League path ( where all the fun will happen)

Bordeaux, Hoffenheim or Potsdam, Levante or Real Madrid, Arsenal, Kristianstad, Slovacko, Koge or Brondby, PSV, AC Milan, Okzheptes, Rosenborg, Valur, Zurich, Glagow City or Celtic or Rangers, Lokomotiv Moscow, FC Minsk


Round 2 entries in the League path

Lyon (likely) or PSG, Wolfsburg (likely) or Bayern, Levante or Real Madrid, Man City, Rosengard, Sparta or Slavia Praha and all the Round 1 winners

With the seeding in place, there will be some firework in round 2 as

OL/PSG will play a non seeded team that could be Arsenal, Hoffenheim/Potsdam, Real Madrid /Levante
Wolfsburg / Bayern will play a non seeded team that could be Arsenal, Real Madrid /Levante
Manchester City will play a non seeded team that could be Hoffenheim/Potsdam, Real Madrid /Levante

 

Direct to round 2

Lyon 124.400
Wolfsburg 97.100
Man City 79.700
Rosengard 49.100
Levante /Real
Sparta / Slavia 35.300/52.300


Round 1

Zurich 30.600
Arsenal 27.700
Hoffenheim ?
Koge or Brondby 41.900
Rangers or Celtic or Glasgow City 33.600

Arsenal will 100% not be seeded in round 2 as there will be between 5 to 7 teams with a higher coefficient

 

Group stage update:

Barcelona, PSG, Bayern or Wolfsburg, Chelsea.

Qualifying Round 2 League path update:
Lyon, Bayern or Wolfsburg, Real Madrid or Levante, Man City, Rosengard, Slavia or Sparta Praha

Germany, Denmark, Croatia, Czech Republic and Scotland qualifying teams to be decided this week-end.

 

Danemark champions are Koge and enter the tournament in qualifying round 2 in the champions path while runner-up Brondby enter the tournament in qualifying round 1 but in the League path.

Slavia v Sparta Praha ended up 1-1, one game remaining and Sparta should win the title next week.

Qualifying Round 2 Champions path update:
BK Hacken, Sparta or Slavia Praha, Koge
They will be joined by the 11 first round winners and seven teams will qualify for the group stage.

 

Real Madrid and Levante have officially qualified for the tournament. Still not decided which team will finish second and enter in Round 2, while the other team will enter in Round 1. Both teams are newcomers with a small coefficient.

 

Group stage

Barcelona holders 104.800
PSG 85.400
Bayern 84.100
Chelsea 70.700

Champions Path

QR 2

Sparta or Slavia Praha 35.300/52.300
BK Hacken 8.100
Køge 6.900

QR1

Kazygurt 36.700
Glasgow City 33.700
Sankt-Polten 28.000
Twente 20.000
and so on

League Path

QR2

Lyon 124.400
Wolfsburg 97.100
Man City 79.700
Rosengard 49.100
Sparta or Slavia Praha 35.300/52.300
Real Madrid or Levante 12.800

QR1

Brøndby 41.900
Zurich 30.600
Arsenal 27.700
Minsk 25.200
Bordeaux 18.400
Hoffenheim 15.100
Real Madrid or Levante 12.800
PSV 9.000
Kristianstad 8.100
Slovacko 7.300
Valur 7.000
Okzhetpes 6.700
Milan 5.200
Rosenborg 4.800
Celtic 4.600
Loko Moscow 3.500

It is quite striking to see that the teams in Round 2 are a lot weaker in the Champions path than in the League path. The difference in coefficient is smaller in QR1.

The good thing about the format change is we can see a lot of newbies coming in the tournament.

 

I think everybody will want Slavia Praha in Round 2.

 

All the 2021/22 dates including draws:

Preliminary (if needed) and Round 1 draw
12:00 CET, 2 July

Preliminary round (if needed)
First leg: 28/29 July
Second leg: 4/5 August

Round 1 (one-venue mini-tournaments)
Semi-finals: 18 August
Final/third-place play-off: 21 August

Round 2 draw
22 August

Round 2
First leg: 31 August/1 September
Second leg: 8/9 September

Group stage draw
13 September

Group stage
Matchday 1: 5/6 October
Matchday 2: 13/14 October
Matchday 3: 9/10 November
Matchday 4: 17/18 November
Matchday 5: 8/9 December
Matchday 6: 15/16 December

Quarter-final & semi-final draw
20 December

Quarter-finals
First leg: 22/23 March
Second leg: 30/31 March

Semi-finals
First leg: 23/24 April
Second leg: 30 April/1 May

Final (Juventus Stadium, Turin)
Sunday 22 May

 

And here we are UEFA have confirmed the 72 entries for the 2021/22 tournament.

Qualified directly for the Group stage:

1 Barcelona (ESP, holders) 104.800
2 Paris Saint-Germain (FRA) 85.400
3 Bayern München (GER) 84.100
4 Chelsea (ENG) 70.700

The will be joined by 7 teams from the Champions path and 5 teams from the League path who will go through two qualifying round.

 

CHAMPIONS PATH – Seven teams qualify for group stage

Enter in round 2:

1 Sparta Praha (CZE) 35.300
2 Häcken (SWE) 16.100
3 Køge (DEN) 6.900

Enter in round 1:

1 BIIK-Kazygurt (KAZ) 36.700
2 Glasgow City (SCO) 33.600
3 St. Pölten (AUT) 28.000
4 Twente (NED) 20.000
5 Gintra (LTU) 18.600
6 Spartak Subotica (SRB) 17.400
7 Breidablik (ISL) 17.000
8 Juventus (ITA) 15.200
9 SFK 2000 Sarajevo (BIH) 14.400
10 Apollon LFC (CYP) 14.200
11 Universitatea Olimpia Cluj (ROU) 12.000
12 Vllaznia (ALB) 10.800
13 Anderlecht (BEL) 10.300
14 Vålerenga (NOR) 9.800
15 WFC Kharkiv (UKR) 9.100
16 Ferencváros (HUN) 8.300
17 Servette FC Chênois (SUI) 7.600
18 Pomurje Beltinci (SVN) 7.400
19 PAOK (GRE) 7.000
20 Osijek (CRO) 6.400
21 Benfica (POR) 5.600
22 CSKA Moskva (RUS) 5.500
23 NSA Sofia (BUL) 5.400
24 Mitrovica (KOS) 5.000
25 Slovan Bratislava (SVK) 5.000
26 Breznica Pljevlja (MNE) 4.800
27 Dinamo-BSUPC (BLR) 4.200
28 KÍ Klaksvík (FRO) 3.600
29 Beşiktaş (TUR) 3.500
30 Flora Tallinn (EST) 2.900
31 Czarni Sosnowiec (POL) 2.900
32 Peamount United (IRL) 2.300
33 Kiryat-Gat (ISR) 2.000
34 Swansea City (WAL) 1.900
35 Birkirkara (MLT) 1.800
36 Åland United (FIN) 1.700
37 Agarista CSF Anenii Noi (MDA) 1.300
38 Rīgas Futbola skola (LVA) 1.200
39 Kamenica Sasa (MKD) 1.200
40 Racing FC Union Luxembourg (LUX) 1.200
41 WFC Nike (GEO) 0.600
42 Glentoran (NIR) 0.400
43 Hayasa (ARM) 0.200

 

LEAGUE PATH – Five teams qualify for group stage

1 Lyon (FRA) 124.400
2 Wolfsburg (GER) 97.100
3 Manchester City (ENG) 79.700
4 Slavia Praha (CZE) 52.300
5 Rosengård (SWE) 49.100
6 Real Madrid (ESP) 12.800

Enter in round 1:

1 Brøndby (DEN) 41.900
2 Zürich (SUI) 30.600
3 Arsenal (ENG) 27.700
4 FC Minsk (BLR) 25.200
5 Bordeaux (FRA) 18.400
6 Hoffenheim (GER) 15.100
7 Levante (ESP) 12.800
8 PSV Eindhoven (NED) 9.000
9 Kristianstad (SWE) 8.100
10 Slovácko (CZE) 7.300
11 Valur (ISL) 7.000
12 Okzhetpes (KAZ) 6.700
13 AC Milan (ITA) 5.200
14 Rosenborg (NOR) 4.800
15 Celtic (SCO) 4.600
16 Lokomotiv Moskva (RUS) 3.500

 

Oh yeah, who wants to go to Asia. Saying that, all the games in each 4 teams group are played in one location, so there is a chance that team will play away.

As usual UEFA have put restrictions on the draw:

• Based on the UEFA Executive Committee decisions valid at the time of the draw, the following teams cannot be drawn into the same group: Kosovo / Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo / Serbia, Kosovo / Russia, Ukraine / Russia

Here is the full draw process for Qualifying Round 1.
There are only 43 teams iso 44 in the Champions path which means one lucky team will only play the final to go through round 2.

 

DAZN have won the worldwide rights for four seasons for the Group stage and knock-out stage.