UEFA has announced that the seeding for
the Champions League will change next
season, with the champions from the top
seven European leagues going into Pot
One alongside the holders.
The current top seven European leagues
according to UEFA's coefficients are as
follows: Spain, England, Germany, Italy,
Portugal, France and Russia.
Had the regulations come into effect for
the current Champions League campaign,
Atletico Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern
Munich, Juventus, Benfica, Paris Saint-
Germain and CSKA Moscow would have all
entered Pot One, alongside holders Real
Madrid.
Instead, this season's top seeds come from
just four different nations: Real Madrid,
Barcelona and Atletico Madrid
representing Spain, Chelsea and Arsenal
representing England, Porto and Benfica
representing Portugal, while Bayern
Munich are Germany's lone
representative.
The existing UEFA format means that
seeding is based on the results of clubs
competing in the five previous seasons of
the UEFA Champions League and UEFA
Europa League.
"It will be ratified later on by the executive
committee but it's a clear recommendation
of the club competition's committee that
the seeding system changes in this respect
as from next season," UEFA general
secretary Gianni Infantino said.
"The Champions League winners are
number one and the seven next placed in
Pot One are not the seven best ranked in
the co-efficient but are the seven
champions of the seven top-ranked
nations in UEFA.
"This will give another dynamic with the
draw and in the way the groups are
composed. It will be approved with the
regulations at the start of next year.
"The club committee felt that there should
be somehow an additional award given to
the winners of the different national
competitions.
"It was maybe a bit difficult to understand
especially in the last few years where the
winner of the national league was not
necessarily the best-ranked club.
"It happened in France and it happened in
England, people had difficulties in
understanding how the champion of a
country is in a lower pot than the third
ranked in that country.
"Football is about winning, it's about
competition it's about sporting merit. I
think it's kind of a natural thing to give to
those who have won a competition a
special treatment like this."
The topic of European club seeding was
discussed during the UEFA Elite Club
Coaches Forum last month amid
complaints that draws were repeating
themselves and the same teams were
occupying higher pots despite not winning
their domestic leagues.
"I don't necessarily think the seeding plays
a great part," Sir Alex Ferguson said during
the meeting in Nyon. "You take what you
get and your performance is the most
important thing."
Manchester City manager Manuel
Pellegrini was one of those calling for UEFA
to make the changes, citing Arsenal's
constant appearance in Pot One as a flaw
in the current system.
"Our group seems unbalanced," Pellegrini
said last month. "In our group we have
three domestic champions -- the English
champions, the German champions and
the Russian champions.
"I think we need to find a modification
whereby, for example, all teams who play
qualification go into Pot Four and all
champions and those who have lots of
points in Europe [a high coefficient] go into
Pot One."
"There is a need for some modification to
not let something like what happened to
us happen again and then, on the other
hand, for the teams who play
preliminaries to not appear to be the most
important ones in Europe."
UEFA is yet to confirm who would take the
final spot in Pot One should the winners of
the Champions League also win their
domestic title.

Nice idea