In anticipation of the first draws for this coming season's European competitions, the sports pages are awash with dates, coefficients and the seeding of rival clubs. A good time to get organised and sketch out Maccabi Tel Aviv's path to the Champions League
Let's start at the end. In order to reach the group stages of the Champions League, Maccabi Tel Aviv will have to beat only three rivals, a total of six matches divided between home and away legs. On paper, the first of those three rivals will be of a lower rank than Maccabi Tel Aviv, by European calculation at least. Now let's get into the details – there are places for ten clubs in the group stages of the Champions League still up for grabs, five of which will have followed the "Champions" route and another five the "non-Champions" route. In the former route, matches are held only between clubs that have won their league's championships, including Maccabi Tel Aviv. And because the champions of Europe's leading leagues gain automatic entrance to the group stage, there is no chance Maccabi will be facing clubs like Manchester United, Barcelona or even for that matter the Belgian side R.S.C. Anderlecht. So the ten triumphant clubs emerging from both the "Champions" and the "non-Champions" route will be joining the 22 automatically placed clubs in the 32-club format of the group stages of the Champions League.
Maccabi Tel Aviv will be joining the qualification scramble in round two, after a first round contested by only four clubs: The league champions of Armenia, the Faroe Islands, Andorra and San Marino. In the second round, 32 clubs will join the two winners of the first round in the quest for the 17 available places in round three. In round two Maccabi Tel Aviv is ranked among the 17 leading clubs and is therefore seeded. That means they will not be facing any of the other seeded clubs and may expect to draw an opponent of lower standing, on paper at least. The highest ranked club among the rivals Maccabi Tel Aviv may be facing in round two is the Bosnian side FK Željezničar Sarajevo, who lost to Maccabi Tel Aviv 8-0 two years ago in the Europa League qualifiers.
In the third round, the 17 winners in the second round will be joined by three more clubs: the Swiss champions FC Basel, the Austrian champions FK Austria Wien (Vienna) and Cypriot Champions APOEL F.C. Nicosia. In this round Maccabi Tel Aviv are no longer seeded and are likely to meet an opponent stronger than themselves, again on paper at least. Among those clubs are the Belarussian champions FC BATE Borisov, Scottish champions Celtic FC, Romanian Champions FC Steaua Bucureşti (Bucharest) and the Czech champions FC Viktoria Plzeň. Further rivals at this stage are the Polish champions Legia Warszawa, the Serbian champions FK Partizan (Belgrade) and the Croatian champions GNK Dinamo Zagreb. They will also be Maccabi's possible opponents if Maccabi get through round three and enter the play-off round, where the ten remaining clubs from all the previous rounds will compete for the five "Champion's route" places in the group stage.
Intimidating? Without question, but still achievable. And now for the somewhat better news. If Maccabi Tel Aviv make it through round two, where they will still be seeded, they will ensure their place in the final play-off round of the Europa League qualifiers, regardless of what happens in the later Champions League rounds. And if Maccabi then go on to beat their Champions League third round rivals, their place in the group stage of the Europa League will be ensured no matter what happens in the Champions League play-off round. And now for the dates:
June 24th – Champions League qualifiers: Second round draw
July 16th/17th – Second round matches, first leg
July 19th – Champions League qualifiers: Third round draw
July 23rd/24th – Second round matches, return leg
July 30th/31st – Third round matches, first leg
August 6th/7th – Third round matches, return leg
August 9th – Champions League qualifiers: Play-off round draw
August 20th/21st – Play-off round, first leg
August 27th/28th – Play-off round, return leg
