Champions League: New teams set to play next season

• Next season the UEFA Champions League will return bigger than ever with an enlarged and revamped structure in 2024–25.
• We look at new clubs that are expected to play in the 2024–25 Champions League.

Next season the UEFA Champions League will return bigger than ever with an enlarged and revamped structure in 2024–25.

We look at new clubs that are expected to play in the 2024–25 Champions League.

Brest

Brest players celebrating a goal. Photo/ Ligue 1

Brest qualified for the Champions League the next season after emerging as the Ligue 1 season’s surprise package.

A top-three performance in Ligue 1 has secured Éric Roy’s team’s spot in the Champions League. Prior to this, the team has never placed higher than ninth in France’s top league or participated in European play.

After being promoted back to the top league in 2018–19, Brest has ended in the bottom half of the division in every season since joining Ligue 1 in 2022–2023, with their lowest result coming in 14th place in 2022–2023.

Romain Del Castillo, with eight goals and eight assists, was the club’s surprising success story. The winger trailed Montpellier’s Teji Savanier in terms of chances created but led Ligue 1 in crosses.

Bologna

Bologna will play in the Champions League mext season. Photo/ Viola Nation

Bologna defied the odds to earn a spot in the elite club tournament of UEFA for the first time since winning the Serie A championship in 1964.

With two games remaining, Thiago Motta’s team secured their Champions League spot. Italy’s coefficient made a top-five Serie A finish sufficient for them to qualify for the competition this year.

Bologna, who were a second-tier team as recently as 2014–15, has accomplished an incredible feat considering that they had not placed in the top five of Serie A for 53 years before to this season. Though Bologna’s budget is the 15th lowest in Serie A, the accomplishment has been made possible despite having little resources compared to Italy’s elite teams.

Riccardo Orsolini had the finest season of his career under Motta, and Joshua Zirkzee’s goal-scoring exploits drew interest from elite teams around Europe. Motta has made the most out of underachievers. After joining from Basel and assuming a central defensive role, Riccardo Calafiori has shown remarkable promise elsewhere.

The guy who made it happen, nevertheless, is expected to leave Bologna. Motta’s appointment as head coach of Juventus is reportedly getting closer to agreement.

Aston Villa

Aston Villa’s remarkable turnaround under Unai Emery has resulted in Champions League qualifying, putting the Midlands team in the running to play on Europe’s greatest stage for the first time in 42 years.

For the first time during the Champions League era, Villa supporters will be able to openly rejoice in their achievement as one of the six English teams to win the European title.

A club that has been steadily improving under Emery’s leadership deserves a top-four Premier League finish, and Villa will compete in the Champions League under one of the most well-respected managers in European football. The Spaniard led Villarreal to the Champions League semifinals in 2021–2022 and has a record four Europa League victories.

Many members of the team, like John McGinn and Ollie Watkins, who started their careers in relatively humble settings at St. Mirren and Exeter City, will be competing on this platform for the first time. The latter will want to improve on a season that was a career high for him, one in which he led the Premier League and scored 28 goals across all competitions.

Girona

Girona players celebrating a goal in the La Liga match against Alaves. | PHOTO: Sky |

Girona has only played in the top flight of Spanish football four times in their 94-year existence. The Catalan team will play in the Champions League the next season against fellow countrymen Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid.

With only one loss in their first 22 games, Girona’s incredible season saw Michel’s team challenge for La Liga. Girona now leads the standings. Among other standout seasons were that of Savio, Miguel Gutierrez, and summer addition Artem Dovbyk, who scored 21 league goals, for the Blanquivermells, who defeated Barcelona both at home and away.

Notwithstanding UEFA’s regulations on multi-club ownership structures, the Spaniards should be granted permission to participate in the Champions League. Owned in part by City Football Group, it has brought up the possibility of a confrontation with Manchester City in the competition the following season. Though other instances, like Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig, have already been given the all-clear to participate, Girona will want to demonstrate their organizational independence from the Premier League team.

Maintaining the nucleus of their side will probably be the most problem. On loan from Troyes, Savio will join Manchester City, and Bayer Leverkusen is attempting to finalize an agreement to sign Aleix Garcia, a valuable midfield player. Additionally, there will be interest in Viktor Tsyhankov, Dovbyk, and Gutierrez.