The Champions League for 2016-17 is starting to take shape. 15 teams are already guaranteed a place in the group phase, four of which we already know, will be seeded. From next season, the head of those respective groups will not be decided by ranking, but by the seven clubs who finished top of the main championships across Europe. This means that Leicester City will be one of the seeded clubs in their first Champions League campaign.
 

In addition to Ranieri’s miracle workers, PSG are sure to head the groups along with Juventus and Bayern Munich. In Spain, Barcelona are one win away from another Liga title and the winners of this season’s tournament (Real Madrid or Atletico) will also be seeded. The fourth club from Spain will be Villarreal. In the Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur will finish second with Arsenal almost guaranteed third. The two Manchester clubs will play for fourth spot. In Germany, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen are in the group phase with Gladbach in pole position to claim fourth spot. Lyon head Monaco by three points in France for the final automatic place whilst in Portugal, the two Lisbon clubs will be straight into the group phase with Porto in the preliminaries. The winners of the Europa League (Sevilla or Liverpool) will also go straight into the group stage.  

Dinamo Kiev, Basel and PSV are guaranteed a group stage pay-day whilst Besiktas are almost over the line in Turkey. CSKA Moscow and Bruges will go into the final qualifying phase as reward for their respective league wins.


Steve MItchell @barafundler