Champions League, after two rounds of the group stage there is already the first participant … next season!

It is fair to say that the top European competition, despite actually starting in July with the usual preliminary rounds, has practically just begun. Yet there is already the first team that will take part … in the 2023/24 edition.

Mysteries of football, of the calendars and of the formulas of the championships. In mid-September, the first round of the Champions League group stage has usually just been played. This season we have carried on with the work and the European matches already played are two, because there is a world championship in November that will force everyone to stop for a while. But in short, whether the matches are one or a couple, it is safe to say that the highest European competition, despite actually starting in July with the usual preliminary rounds, has practically just begun. But since the ball rolls in its own way, there is already the first team that will take part … in the 2023/24 edition.

The lucky ones are the champions of the Far Øer Islands, or the KI. As he tells AS, the club has just won the championship, the second in the last three tournaments played, and has thus won the certainty of being part of the next Champions League participants. Of course, it will start from the first round of the preliminaries and given the level of football of the islands that are halfway between Scotland and Iceland, it is reasonable to think that in the end the KI will not play the cups, but while all the greats clubs analyze the start of the season to understand how many are the chances of securing a place in Europe, the Faroese champions can rest assured, because their task has already been completed.

And this time the world championship has little to do with a championship that ended in mid-September, because that’s the practice in those parts. The long, cold and very dim winters suggest concentrating football tournaments from when spring returns to be seen until summer turns into an autumn that is also quite cool at those latitudes. So, considering that there are ten teams in the Faroe Islands and that there are 27 matches in the tournament (home, home and away), the question is already closed. Then the other Scandinavians will arrive, who also opt for championships in the calendar year. But in the meantime, the first team of the next Champions League is already certain … even before the third round is played.