Manchester City begin their defence of the Champions League on Tuesday when the group stage kicks off in the last season in its current format as Europe's elite club competition gets ready for a radical change.

Unveiled by UEFA in 2021 at the height of the crisis which saw a group of 12 clubs announce a breakaway Super League before promptly abandoning the project, the new-look Champions League will begin next year.

It will see the number of clubs involved in the competition proper increase from 32 to 36, with all participants going into a single league in which teams will play eight games -- up from the current six -- in what is known as the "Swiss system".

This is therefore the last campaign, after two decades, in which the Champions League will begin with a group stage featuring eight sections of four teams, with the top two in each advancing to the last 16.

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