And simulate a random draw!
About the new Format
A Brief Description
The Union of European Football Associations, commonly known as UEFA, has announced plans to introduce a new format for the Champions League, Europe's most prestigious club football competition, starting next season. This reform aims to expand the number of participating teams and enhance the viewing experience for fans.
Our analysis focuses on the initial phase of this revised format, which features a mini-league comprising 36 teams. These teams are ranked based on their UEFA coefficient and are allocated into four pots of nine teams each, labeled from 1 (highest coefficient) to 4 (lowest coefficient). The regulations governing this format, which will be referred to as the constraints of this problem, are as follows:
- Each team will play eight matches, consisting of exactly two matches against two different teams from each pot, one at home and one away.
- A team may not compete against another team from the same country.
- A team is restricted to playing against no more than two teams from any single country.
- All matches must be scheduled across eight match days.
How the draw might work
- A team is randomly drawn from pot 1. Its 8 opponents are randomly drawn as follows.
- The list of its admissible (home, away) pair of pot 1 opponents is established and one pair is randomly drawn.
- Same with pot 2, pot 3 and pot 4 opponents.
- Another team is randomly drawn from pot 1, and its 8 opponents are randomly drawn as above. This is repeated for all pot 1 teams.
- The draw moves to pot 2. A team is randomly drawn from pot 2. Its two pot 1 opponents have already been drawn. Its 6 opponents from pots 2, 3, and 4 are randomly drawn as above.
- Another team is randomly drawn from pot 2, and its 6 opponents from pots 2, 3, and 4, are randomly drawn as above. This is repeated until pot 2 has been emptied.
- The draw moves to pot 3, and then to pot 4, using the same process.
- To compute the list of admissible (home, away) pair of opponents in a given pot, the computer takes into account all the draw constraints and the current state of the draw, and anticipates all future scenarios to avoid a future deadlock. We use the Gurobi optimizer.
Simulation
Draw Stage
Team: Display current team
Pot: Display current pot
Drawing opponents for Pot 1 teams
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | Away | Home | Away | Home | Away | Home | Away | |
| Real | ||||||||
| ManCity | ||||||||
| Bayern | ||||||||
| PSG | ||||||||
| Liverpool | ||||||||
| Inter | ||||||||
| Dortmund | ||||||||
| Leipzig | ||||||||
| Barcelona | ||||||||
Results
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | Away | Home | Away | Home | Away | Home | Away | |
| Real | ||||||||
| ManCity | ||||||||
| Bayern | ||||||||
| PSG | ||||||||
| Liverpool | ||||||||
| Inter | ||||||||
| Dortmund | ||||||||
| Leipzig | ||||||||
| Barcelona | ||||||||
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | Away | Home | Away | Home | Away | Home | Away | |
| Leverkusen | ||||||||
| Atlético | ||||||||
| Atalanta | ||||||||
| Juventus | ||||||||
| Benfica | ||||||||
| Arsenal | ||||||||
| Brugge | ||||||||
| Shakhtar | ||||||||
| Milan | ||||||||
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | Away | Home | Away | Home | Away | Home | Away | |
| Feyenoord | ||||||||
| Sporting | ||||||||
| Eindhoven | ||||||||
| Dinamo | ||||||||
| Salzburg | ||||||||
| Lille | ||||||||
| Crvena | ||||||||
| YB | ||||||||
| Celtic | ||||||||
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home | Away | Home | Away | Home | Away | Home | Away | |
| Bratislava | ||||||||
| Monaco | ||||||||
| Sparta | ||||||||
| Aston Villa | ||||||||
| Bologna | ||||||||
| Girona | ||||||||
| Stuttgart | ||||||||
| Sturm Graz | ||||||||
| Brest | ||||||||
Find More Details Below
The implementation of this draw simulator was carried out as part of an academic project realized by Adle Ben Salem, Thomas Buchholtzer and Mathieu Tanré, and led by Julien Guyon and Frédéric Meunier at École nationale des ponts et chaussées, Paris, France. You can find the report below.