Big names await Friday draw
Monday, July 12, 2010
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Former European champions AFC Ajax and Celtic FC are among the clubs who will be involved in this week's draw for the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.
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Former European champions AFC Ajax and Celtic FC will be among the leading clubs keen to learn their fate when the draw for the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round is made in Nyon on Friday, streamed live on UEFA.com.
The pair are among 13 sides who enter the competition at this stage with the draw – to be held at UEFA headquarters from 12.00CET – split into two sections. All teams in the hat are allocated to either the Champions Route or the League Route and kept apart until their potential arrival in the group stage.
Ajax and Celtic are both in the League Route, which also includes 2008 UEFA Cup winners FC Zenit St. Petersburg plus FC Dynamo Kyiv and FC Unirea Urziceni, who were both in the 2009/10 group stage. Of the 13 teams who enter the competition in the third qualifying round only SC Braga and KAA Gent are experiencing UEFA Champions League football for the first time.
The Champions Route features only three clubs: Switzerland's FC Basel 1893, RSC Anderlecht of Belgium and FC København from Denmark. The 34 teams in the second qualifying round, which starts this week, will all be in Friday's draw with the concluding legs of the second qualifying round on 20 and 21 July.
Draw format
League route
Clubs are divided into equal numbers of seeded and unseeded teams according to rankings established at the beginning of the season. Balls containing seeded teams will be placed in one bowl and unseeded teams in another. A ball from each bowl will be placed in a large empty bowl, where they are shuffled. The first team drawn will play its first match at home, against the second team drawn.
Champions route
The 37 teams (Basel, Anderlecht and København as well as the 17 second qualifying round pairings) are divided into two groups. Each are divided into equal numbers of seeded and unseeded teams according to rankings established at the beginning of the season, with second qualifying round pairings adopting the higher of the two teams. Balls containing seeded teams will be placed in one bowl and unseeded teams in another. A ball from each bowl will be placed in a large empty bowl, where they are shuffled. The first team drawn will play its first match at home, against the second team drawn.
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