In the last week of August, the final preparations for next season's top UEFA competitions take place. Champions League celebrates the draw on Thursday, August 28, with all but four teams confirmed to be in the pots for the 2025/26 season. As usual, Europa League and Conference League's final play-off matches take place on Thursday, so the draw will be on Friday, August 29, at 13:00 CEST, 12:00 BST.
With the new format (league phase with 36 teams, playing eight matches each, and never with clubs from the same country), the draw has also changed. The balls will still be used on Champions League draw, but only to determine clubs from Pot 1: the rest will be automatic.
However, on Europa League and Conference League draws (both announced in the same livestream for the first time) no ball will be used at all, and instead will be an automatic system. So, theoretically, the whole draw could be over in seconds, but UEFA will still keep the suspense for a little while.
In Europa League, confirmed teams are Aston Villa, Bologna, Celta, Freiburg, GNK Dinamo, Eagles, Lille, Lyon, Nottingham Forest, Porto, Betis, Roma, and Stuttgart. The rest will be decided after the play-offs.
So, on Friday, August 29, as 13:00 CEST, 12:00 BST, UEFA will broadcast the draw on their YouTube and social media channels. However, most of the teams still need to qualify through the play-off, that end today and tomorrow, Thursday...