Real Madrid, the Spanish champions, and the rest of Europe’s elite clubs will learn the roadmap to continental glory when the 2022-23 Champions League group stage draw takes place in Istanbul on Thursday.

The final match of the most important continental club championship will take place in Istanbul, specifically on 10 June next year at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium, and Istanbul was supposed to host the final in 2020 and then in 2021, but in both cases, the European Union moved the match to Portugal from due to restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic.

– emergency shift –

The European Union had to make emergency changes last season when it stripped St. Petersburg of the right to host the final after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, after suffering organizational and security problems.

Thus, Real Madrid strengthened their record for the most titles (14 times), doubling the number of times that the next most successful club of the tournament, Milan, was crowned.

Real started their continental season with a 2–0 win over European champions Eintracht Frankfurt to win the European Super Cup.

Real Madrid will be in the first pot, along with the top six league champions who did not qualify by winning the 2021-2022 titles, namely Manchester City, Bayern, AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain, Porto and Ajax. , in addition to Eintracht Frankfurt, champions of the Europa League (European League).

As for Liverpool, they will be in the second pot, which means the possibility of an extension of the date with Real Madrid in the final replay, along with Tottenham and Chelsea, England, Barcelona and Juventus of Italy.

Russian clubs will not participate due to a ban placed on them due to the war in Ukraine, but the latter will be represented by one club, Shakhtar Donetsk, after compatriot Dynamo Kiev were eliminated from the preliminary rounds by losing to Benfica » 0:5. in two matches.

The final places will be determined on Wednesday evening as Bodo Glimt aims to become the first Norwegian team to take part in the group stage in 15 years.

And with the World Cup in Qatar in the winter, the group stage program will be compressed with six stages taking place over two months, as the World Cup from November 20 to December 18 forced the European Union to hold all matches within nine weeks. starting September 6th.

The international window also opens during this period and will be more demanding on players than ever, but the financial rewards will pay off for the clubs.

In July, the European Union sent out a circular to member associations detailing the financial prizes planned for this season, where the team that wins the Italian league title will receive 90 million euros ($89.5 million).

In addition, there will be an additional share of television rights for each country, as well as amounts based on the team’s ranking based on results over the past 10 years. The amount ranges from €1.137m for the lowest-ranked team that will be among the play-off winners this week, to more than €36m for Real Madrid, who are number one on the continent.

On the other hand, on Friday there will be a draw for the Europa League tournament, which will be attended by clubs such as Manchester United, Arsenal and Roma of Italy, and immediately after that the Conference League draw will take place.

– “Player of the Year” award –

Real Madrid are expected to win European titles elsewhere on Thursday, with Belgian goalkeeper Thibault Courtois and France’s top scorer Karim Benzema, along with Manchester City playmaker Kevin de Bruyne, to be nominated for the European Player of the Year award. for last season on the sidelines of the pumpkin draw.

Italian Carlo Ancelotti (Real Madrid), Spaniard Pep Guardiola (Manchester City) and German Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool) will compete for the title of best coach.