Champions League 2007/2008 Tickets
Football Fans Should Prepare Budgets For Six Group Stage Games
Supporters of Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Inter Milan and VFB Stuttgart can start to save for fixtures in their club's European campaign.
UEFA, the governing body of European Football, has announced the teams that will automatically qualify for the group stages of the 2007/ 2008 Champions League. This means that fans of the teams that have already qualified can start preparing their budgets for at least six games during the 2007/ 2008 tournament. As Champions League tickets can be costly, it’s a good idea to start saving before the tournament gets underway.
The competition, which was won by Italian club AC Milan last year, will run throughout the European football season, but the competing teams enter at various stages.
Champions League 2007/ 2008 Groups – Qualification Criteria
The stage of the competition that the teams enter is dependent on a few criteria. The first, and major, one is the performances of a nation’s teams in previous years’ European competitions. This means that the two clubs that finish on top of the English, Spanish and Italian leagues automatically qualify for the group phase, due to strong performances in the past.
The same co-efficients are used to decide the make up of the other qualifiers. For the 2007/ 2008 tournament, this means the top two sides from France, Germany and Portugal, as well as the top side from The Netherlands, Russia and Greece.
The other automatic qualifier is the previous year’s winner – in this case AC Milan of Italy.
Champions League 2007/ 2008 Groups – The Automatic Qualifiers
The automatic qualifiers for the group stages are as follows:
AC Milan, Inter Milan, AS Roma (Italy)
Real Madrid, FC Barcelona (Spain)
Manchester United, Chelsea (England)
Olympique Lyonnais, Olympique de Marseille (France)
PSV Eindhoven (The Netherlands)
FC Porto, Sporting Lisbon (Portugal)
FC Schalke 04, Vfb Stuttgart (Germany)
Olympiacos (Greece)
CSKA Moscow (Russia)
Champions League 2007/ 2008 Groups – Seeding System
The seeding system for the Champions League group stage, however, is slightly different. The way the teams are put into the groups is dependent on the club’s previous European performances, rather than the combined effort of the clubs from the relevant national national league. So, for example, while the past performances of clubs from the German league assure Germany of two automatic spots in the Champions league, neither Schalke 04 or VFB Stuttgart are likely to be seeded, as most of the points in Germany’s co-efficient have been earned by Bayern Munich in previous seasons.
Champions League 2007/ 2008 Groups – The Seeds
The seeds for the 2007/ 2008 European Champions League group stage will be AC Milan, FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester United. They will be joined by Liverpool and Arsenal, providing both English clubs make it through the third qualifying round, where they will enter the competition.
