UEFA assures fast, secure Champions League draw with new software

Organisers of the revamped UEFA Champions League draw, which relies on a software program have assured that the process will be swift and secure against hackers. UEFA has partnered with AE Live, a specialist technology firm, to manage the draw for the new 36-team, single-league format, replacing the traditional manual group stage draw with balls picked from bowls.

“We have taken all steps we possibly can to make it as safe and secure as possible,” said David Gill of AE Live, the English software firm behind the drawing process for Thursday’s ceremony in Monaco. “This is not new for us.”

Gill highlighted that AE Live has also worked with FIFA and previously encountered a “supply chain attack” after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Following the invasion, FIFA and UEFA removed Russia from the World Cup qualifying playoffs ahead of the finals draw in Qatar.

UEFA deputy general secretary Giorgio Marchetti expressed full confidence in AE Live’s system, which has not shared its software code with UEFA. Addressing past conspiracy theories about the integrity of UEFA draws, Marchetti acknowledged, “Many people didn’t trust us in the past. They thought the ball was hot or cold or God only knows which systems to manipulate the balls. People can trust us.”

After 21 years of the traditional Champions League format—where 32 teams played six group-stage games each—the new system features 36 teams, each playing eight different opponents in a single league. The standings in January will determine which teams advance to the knockout phase. This new format creates numerous permutations, making the old-style manual draw too time-consuming.

Instead, the draw will use software to decide each team’s eight opponents after a ball is picked from one of four seeded bowls, with the results displayed within seconds. “The response of the system will happen in a few seconds so there is no possibility for anyone to intervene,” Marchetti said.

The assurance of a seamless draw comes after last December’s draw for the men’s European Championship was disrupted by unexplained moaning noises, later claimed by a British prankster, during a broadcast from a concert hall in Hamburg, Germany.