The Champions League 2022/23 draw will be made today at 5pm, UK time, with Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur all learning their fates for the season.
City in Pot 1, with the other three teams left in the second pot. Scottish pair Celtic Rangers, back in the competition for together for the first time in a decade, are both in Pot 4 for the draw.
So why is each team in these specific pots? Allow us to explain…
How are the pots decided for the Champions League 2022/23?
32 teams qualify for the Champions League every season. The 32 sides are then split into four pots. The stronger teams are supposed to be in Pot 1, the weaker teams in Pot 4, so that each Champions League will be balanced.
Pot 1 consists of the competition winners from last season, plus the holders of the Europa League – that's Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt, respectively. The other slots are filled by the domestic champions of the top leagues in Europe, according to UEFA coefficient. In the event that there is overlap between competition winners and domestic champions, the number of league champions in Pot 1 may rise or fall. This season, there are six.
The other 24 teams are ordered purely by coefficient and placed from Pot 2 to Pot 4.
What is UEFA coefficient and how is it decided?
Introduced in 1979, coefficients are statistics used for ranking and seeding clubs depending on how well they've done in UEFA competition.
Clubs receive points depending on whether they win or lose matches in Europe, with the clubs who are regularly successful in the Champions League and Europa League accumulating more coefficient than those who are not. For example, a club earns 40,000 coefficient points if it wins a qualification match – but 78,000 if it wins a final.
Bayern are the top-rated side with 138,000 coefficient in this season's competition.
Can clubs from the same country be drawn against each other in a Champions League group?
No. Clubs have country protection until the quarter-finals of the competition.
Which leagues have the highest UEFA coefficient?
Leagues are given coefficients, too. The leagues with the highest coefficient are given more automatic spots in the competition, while lower-ranked leagues have fewer.
England have four automatic spots in the Champions League, as the league with the most coefficient in Europe. Scotland, for example, only have one automatic spot in the Champions League group stage as a weaker league.
Similar to the FA Cup, there are some nations in which clubs will have to endure qualifying rounds, with the lowest-ranked leagues having to start fixtures much earlier and clubs from other nations, such as France or Austria, coming into the competition later.
After England, the highest-ranked leagues are Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands, Portugal and then Scotland.
