UEFA Champions League Draw Highlights: UCL 2023-24 groups finalised, Haaland, Bonmati win UEFA Player of the Year Awards

UEFA EUROPA AND CONFERENCE LEAGUE DRAW UPDATES

Plenty of exciting football to look forward to this season, with the groupings set for the Champions League. That you for tuning in tonight and take very good care of yourselves.

Nominees: Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium/Manchester City), Erling Haaland (Norway/Manchester City), Lionel Messi (Argentina/Inter Miami)

Erling Haaland wins the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year.

Nominees: Aitana Bonmati (Barcelona/Spain), Carmona (Real Madrid/Spain), Sam Kerr (Australia/Chelsea)

Aitana Bonmati wins the UEFA Women’s Player of the Year Award.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, who won the Champions League with his club, wins the UEFA Men’s Coach of the Year.

Sarina Wiegman, who won the Women’s Euros 2022 and also led the Lionesses to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 final, wins the UEFA Women’s Coach of the Year.

Miroslav Klose, the former Germany striker gets the UEFA President’s Award for his unwavering service to the sport and his fair play gestures, especially the hand-ball incident where he asked the referee to not give the goal to his own team.

The other incident was of a penalty in Bundesliga where the referee points to the spot after Klose goes down, following a challenge by the goalie. But Klose rectifies to say that there was no spot-kick there.

Group A: Bayern Munich, Manchester United, FC Copenhagen, Galatasaray

Group B: Sevilla, Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven, RC Lens

Group C: Napoli, Real Madrid, Braga, Union Berlin

Group D: Benfica, Inter Milan, Salzburg, Real Sociedad

Group E: Feyenoord, Atletico Madrid, Lazio, Celtic

Group F: Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund, AC Milan, Newcastle United

Group G: Manchester City, RB Leipzig, FK Crvena Zvezda, BSC Young Boys

Group H: Barcelona, Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Royal Antwerp

A set of exciting games are ready to be played with Manchester United vs Bayern Munich and Real Madrid vs Napoli being the most high-profile clashes in the group-stage.

Group A: Bayern Munich, Manchester United, FC Copenhagen, Galatasaray

Group B: Sevilla, Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven, RC Lens

Group C: Napoli, Real Madrid, Braga, Union Berlin

Group D: Benfica, Inter Milan, Salzburg, Real Sociedad

Group E: Feyenoord, Atletico Madrid, Lazio, Celtic

Group F: Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund, AC Milan, Newcastle United

Group G: Manchester City, RB Leipzig, FK Crvena Zvezda, BSC Young Boys

Group H: Barcelona, Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk, Royal Antwerp

Pot 4: Young Boys (Switzerland), Real Sociedad (Spain), Galatasaray (Turkey), Celtic (Scotland), Newcastle (England), Union Berlin (Germany), Royal Antwerp (Belgium), Lens (France).

Group A: Bayern Munich, Manchester United, FC Copenhagen

Group B: Sevilla, Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven

Group C: Napoli, Real Madrid, Braga

Group D: Benfica, Inter Milan, Salzburg

Group E: Feyenoord, Atletico Madrid, Lazio

Group F: Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund, AC Milan

Group G: Manchester City, RB Leipzig, FK Crvena Zvezda

Group H: Barcelona, Porto, Shakhtar Donetsk

Pot 3: Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine), Salzburg (Austria), AC Milan (Italy), Braga (Portugal), PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands), Lazio (Italy), Red Star Belgrade (Serbia), Copenhagen (Denmark).

Group A: Bayern Munich, Manchester United

Group B: Sevilla, Arsenal

Group C: Napoli, Real Madrid

Group D: Benfica, Inter Milan

Group E: Feyenoord, Atletico Madrid

Group F: Paris Saint-Germain, Borussia Dortmund

Group G: Manchester City, RB Leipzig

Group H: Barcelona, Porto

Pot 2: Real Madrid (Spain), Manchester United (England), Inter Milan (Italy), Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Atlético Madrid (Spain), Leipzig (Germany), Porto (Portugal), Arsenal (England).

Joe Cole picks up Bayern Munich.

Group A: Bayern Munich

Group B: Sevilla

Group C: Napoli

Group D: Benfica

Group E: Feyenoord

Group F: Paris Saint-Germain

Group G: Manchester City

Group H: Barcelona

Manchester City (England), Sevilla (Spain), Barcelona (Spain), Bayern Munich (Germany), Napoli (Italy), Paris Saint-Germain (France), Benfica (Portugal), Feyenoord (Netherlands).

UEFA chief Giorgio Marchetti arrives on stage for the draw with Abidal and Cole ready to start the draw. The European football body puts on an explainer to show how the teams will be drawn into groups.

The Champions League final for the 2023-24 will be played in the Wembley Stadium. And for the draw. The former players who will take part in the draw for the UCL - Eric Abidal and Joe Cole. (Photo courtesy: UEFA)

The draw ceremony begins with the iconic theme of the UEFA Champions League and then a B-Roll on the UCL campaign last year - one that saw Manchester City win a historic treble.

The 32 teams also are playing for entry to — and more prize money from – the inaugural expanded FIFA Club World Cup in June 2025 hosted by the United States.

Europe will send 12 teams to that 32-team lineup including the past three Champions League title holders — Man City, Real Madrid and Chelsea — plus the winner of this edition.

Other places should go to teams with the best overall record in the four Champions League seasons from 2020-24.

That’s good for consistent performers Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Benfica. Not so much for clubs which missed qualification in at least one recent season, like Manchester United, Arsenal and now Juventus.

The UEFA Champions League draw is set to begin in a few minutes. At the ceremony, mementoes of all the three European trophies are kept as the players and officials arrrive for the program.

So far, Sportstar understands that Joe Cole, Henrik Larsson, Eric Abidal and Luis Figo have arrived on the red carpet.

UEFA has 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) prize money for the rest of the competition. Each of the 32 gets a basic 15.64 million ($17.1 million) plus shares of a 600 million euros ($656 million) fund distributed according to clubs’ historic record in UEFA competitions.

Top-ranked Real Madrid’s share will be about 36.4 million euros ($40 million) and about 1.14 million euros ($1.25 million) to the lowest-ranked team, Lens, which has not played in European football for 16 years.

UEFA also will pay teams 2.8 million euros ($3.1 million) per win and 930,000 euros ($1 million) per draw in the group stage, escalating payments for advancing through each knockout round, plus a share of the TV money paid by rights holders in their home country.

Real Madrid was the highest earner with 133 million euros ($145 million) from UEFA when it won the 2022 title — the last figures published by UEFA. Moldovan champion Sheriff’s 23.7 million euros ($26 million) was the lowest UEFA payout that season.

This Champions League is the 20th and last in the familiar format of eight round robin groups of four teams each, sending the top two into a 16-team knockout bracket.

Next year the Champions League expands to 36 teams, playing eight games instead of six, ranked in a single standings. The top eight will advance direct to the round of 16. Teams ranked No. 9 through 24 go into a knockout playoffs round to decide the other eight places in the last-16.

The final edition in the established format starts Sept. 19 and group-stage games finish Dec. 13. The knockout stage starts in February and reaches the final at Wembley Stadium in London on June 1.

There will be 14 winners of the Champions League, or the old European Cup, in the 32-team group stage draw on Thursday after PSV Eindhoven advanced in the qualifying playoffs.

PSV, the European champion in 1988, beat Rangers 5-1 in their playoff second leg on Wednesday to complete a 7-3 aggregate score.

Royal Antwerp had not played in the competition since 1957 yet also sealed its place in the draw by winning 2-1 at AEK Athens. The champion of Belgium advanced 3-1 on aggregate.

Copenhagen completed the lineup with a 1-1 draw at home to competition debutant Raków Częstochowa having already won 1-0 in Poland.

PSV’s single European title means winners of 48 of the 68 editions of Europe’s most prized club title will enter the draw. It includes record 14-time champion Real Madrid and defending champion Manchester City, which won its first title in June.