Now in its third season since the UEFA Women’s Champions League was reformatted to include a group stage, the calls for an expanded group stage — the competition only has four groups of four in 2023-24, compared to eight groups of four in the men’s tournament — have never been louder following the elimination of Arsenal, Juventus and Levante during the first round of qualifying. While shocking and a blow to the Champions League’s star power, it does come with the caveat that Arsenal were knocked out by a fellow third-place finisher in their respective league (Paris FC), while Juventus, who finished runners-up in Serie A, were dispatched by third-place Frauen-Bundesliga finisher, Eintracht Frankfurt.
At present, 42 teams are knocked out of the Champions League during the first round of qualification, with just 11 advancing from the “champions path” — the mini-tournaments that contain the champions from the 41 countries with the lowest co-efficient. Those who make it through that side of the draw go into a second round of qualifying with the next three highest ranked nations — this season, the champions from Czechia, Sweden and Italy — with the seven winners advancing to the group stage.
The “league path,” the one now viewed as…
