UEFA have announced plans to shake up the seedings for the Champions League starting from next season.
Under the current rules the top eight clubs in the complex co-efficient system go into pot one which has allowed clubs like Arsenal to maintain a place in pot one despite making little impact on the knock-out stages of the competition.
By avoiding the top four or five ranked clubs Arsene Wenger’s side are given an easier passage through the group stage with little prospect of advancing further suffering heavy first leg defeats from Bayern Munich twice and AC Milan in recent seasons.
Under the new UEFA proposals the holders and champions from the top seven nations will go into pot one shaking up the entire seeding process.
While the third and fourth placed teams from countries like England and Spain will lose out a team like Manchester City will benefit from winning the English title by going into the top pot rather than finding themselves grouped with the champions of Germany as they have been in the last two seasons.
Explaining the move UEFA secretary Gianni Infantino told Sky Sports: “It will be ratified later on by the executive committee but it’s a clear recommendation of the club competition’s committee that the seeding system changes in this respect as from next season.
“People had difficulties in understanding how the champion of a country is in a lower pot than the third-ranked in that country.
“This will give another dynamic with the draw and in the way the groups are composed. It will be approved with the regulations at the start of next year.
“The club committee felt that there should be somehow an additional award given to the winners of the different national competitions.”
If the system had been in place this season Chelsea, Arsenal, Barcelona and Porto wouldn’t have been in the top group of seeds.
Should Celtic qualify for next season’s Champions League they are likely to be in pot four but the shake up should provide for more balanced groups with more of the ‘top’ clubs appearing in pots two and three.