UEFA has said it will completely computerise the Champions League draw from next season due to its new format.
The competition will be expanded to 36 teams from the 2024/2025 campaign, with all teams in one league table.
Each club will play eight games, four at home and four away.
There will be four pots of nine teams, determined by UEFA’s five-year performance coefficient, with a club facing two opponents from each pot.
UEFA says that drawing each club’s opponents manually, as was the case under the old format, would take up to four hours and require up to 900 balls due to the complex considerations within the draw.
It means the only manual aspect will be the ceremonial part of choosing the team whose fixtures are to be decided. The computer will then allocate that team’s opponents automatically from all four pots, and decide which fixtures are home and away.
UEFA insists that its computer systems are robust and audited by Ernst & Young to underpin fairness.
