Should the UWCL Format be Reformed?

With Arsenal, Levante and Juventus crashing out of the UEFA Women’s Champions League in Round 1, people are asking whether it is time for the qualifying format to be changed.

How do the UWCL qualifying stages work?

The qualifying process for the UWCL is not particularly straightforward.

Leagues from the six highest ranked football associations – France, Germany, Spain, England, Sweden and Czechia each have 3 UWCL teams entering the competition.

Leagues from the next ten highest ranked associations – Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Norway, Scotland, Belarus, Ukraine and Austria get two entries, while other associations receive one entry.

The reigning title holders and the champions of the three highest ranking countries receive an automatic group place.

For the 2023/24 Champions League season, this means that Barcelona, Bayern, Chelsea and Lyon have automatic places in the group stage of the competition.

The champions of the remaining associations go into the champions path – champions of the 5-7th ranked associations enter at Round 2, while the other associations’ champions go into Round 1.

The runners-up in the six highest ranked associations (Spain, France, Germany, England, Sweden and Czechia) enter Round 2. This includes Manchester United as the runners-up in the WSL, Wolfsburg, PSG and Real Madrid.

Juventus, Levante and Arsenal entered the competition in Round 1, which involves an unusual mini-tournament format. This involves 2 x one-legged matches to progress to Round 2.

Why is the UWCL qualifying format being questioned?

There are a number of complaints about the current format, not least because of the little preparation time between the conclusion of the Women’s World Cup. The WWC final took place on 20 August 2023, while the first UWCL qualifying matches took place just 17 days later on 6 September.

Both Arsenal and Levante had players involved in the WWC to the final, leaving minimal time to rest, recover and for the Spain national players, celebrate their victory. There are good reasons for body conditioning experts advising elite teams to provide ample rest time and a pre-season that allows time to prepare athletes for a long season of football.

When a full pre-season is not provided, players are at higher risk of injury and given that ACL injuries have been so prevalent in women’s football, having adequate rest periods should be a top priority.

This is not the first time that the format of the UWCL qualifying stages has been questioned. Last season Manchester City were knocked out of the tournament at the expense of Real Madrid.

With elite teams such as Arsenal, who made the semi-finals last season, crashing out of the UWCL at Round 1 – is now the time to call for a reform in the format?

Or should there be a set minimum period of time between the last competitive match players take part in to the first match in the UWCL? The tournament will now be missing teams that would be amongst the favourites, had they not played the games at such an early date after international football fixtures and not allowing them for adequate preparations.