Champions League seeding system to change next season

Changes are set to be implemented for next season's Champions League as UEFA announced on Thursday that the competition's reigning champions will be placed in pot one along with the champions of Europe's top seven domestic leagues.

The new system means that club co-efficients will no longer be used to determine what sides are placed into pot one, as was the case this season, and the top 7 champions will be based on the seven top-ranked nations in UEFA.

"This will give another dynamic with the draw and in the way the groups are composed," said UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino of the revamp. "It will be approved with the regulations at the start of next year. The club committee felt that there should be somehow and additional award given to the winners of the different national competitions."

Criticism surrounded this season's format as complaints were made over the draws repeating themselves, something that was discussed at UEFA's two-day meeting of leading coaches in Nyon, Switzerland in September.

Had the new system been implemented this season, pot one would have featured Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain, Benefica, Juventus, and CSKA Moscow.