The UEFA Women’s Champions League round 1 draw is almost upon us and it’s time to release the part two of our very own “Breaking down the new UEFA Women’s Champions League format”. This time, we are going to talk about media coverage and what might come in the rossonere’s way in the League Path.
New broadcast deal
Today UEFA announced a deal with DAZN for broadcasting the Champions League games for the next four seasons. The sports streaming platform struck a deal with YouTube and, from the first two seasons of the deal (2021-2022 and 2022-2023) all the matches from the group stage onwards will be available free on DAZN and DAZN’s YouTube channel.
This is a huge step for the women’s game, bringing visibility for the movement, for the games and for the players. The outcome of this might even arrive still this season, with more, and bigger, sponsorship deals and more fans in the stadiums.
Round 1 Draw
After some changes in the scheduled, UEFA confirmed the Champions League first qualifying round draw to take place this Friday, July 2nd at 13:00 CET. The governing body of European football also confirmed all 72 participant clubs for the tournament, and, alongside AC Milan, 10 more clubs will be making their UWCL debut this season (Køge, Dinamo-BSUPC, Czarni Sosnowiec, Hayasa, Real Madrid, Bordeaux, Hoffenheim, Kristianstad, Slovácko, Celtic, Lokomotiv Moskva).
As we said before, the rossonere are in the “League Path” Round 1 and, on this phase, 16 clubs will be drawn into 4 one-legged mini-knockout tournaments to take place on August, 18 to 21, in which only the winners advance to the Round 2.
The rossonere, in Pot 2, might be up against Brøndby (DEN), Zürich (SUI), Arsenal (ENG), FC Minsk (BLR), Bordeaux (FRA), Hoffenheim (GER), Levante (ESP) or PSV Eindhoven (NED), as they are in Pot 1, in the first semifinal.
The other teams in pot 2, besides Milan, are Kristianstad (SWE), Slovácko (CZE), Valur (ISL), Okzhetpes (KAZ), Rosenborg (NOR), Celtic (SCO) and Lokomotiv Moskva (RUS).
Image credits: uefa.com
