December 11 – The European Club Association (ECA) has given an unequivocal endorsement of UEFA’s reformatted women’s club competitions that will come into play with the 2025/26 season.
The announcements by UEFA last week will see an expansion of Women’s Champions League from a 16-team group stage to an 18-team single-league format, and the introduction of a second women’s European club competition.
The WCL will see teams play three home and three away matches before progressing to a knockout round. The second women’s club competition will be a 44-team straight knockout format and will provide clubs eliminated from the Champions League further competition as well as bring in more women’s teams to European competition.
The ECA said that the “evolution of the women’s competition landscape is a key pillar of ECA’s Be a Changemaker strategy in its work with UEFA and ECA’s members, will provide even more clubs with access to the European stage and serve as a vital development tool for the women’s game”.
ECA Head of Women’s Football, Claire Bloomfield said: “This is a truly landmark moment for women’s club football in Europe. When we launched the Be a Changemaker strategy in March 2021, we made a commitment to boost the opportunities for clubs to realise European ambitions through the development of the competition landscape. I am proud that after several months of hard work and close collaboration with UEFA, we can now announce it’s yet another ambitious goal we have delivered on.”
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