It could be argued that, for teams with low coefficients and relatively low chances of reaching knockout stages, it's more beneficial to lose in 🟠 UEL PO and play 🟢 UECL rather than 🟠 UEL. Financial benefit of playing 🟠 UEL comes mostly from the Value Pillar that rewards teams with big 5y and 10y coefficients and teams from lucrative TV markets.

But if you have a relatively low coefficient and don't come from a valuable TV market, that benefit all but disappears.

When the World Cup qualifying draw is made on 13 December, Germany 🇩🇪, Spain 🇪🇸, Italy 🇮🇹, France 🇫🇷, Portugal 🇵🇹, Netherlands 🇳🇱, and the remaining two UNL 1/4-finalists will NOT know in which group they are drawn.

Here is why. 🧵 Four winners of UNL 1/4-finals will play the Final Four tournament in June 2025, which means they will HAVE to be put in groups of 4 teams in WC qualifiers for scheduling reasons.

The problem is that we won't know who these 4 winners are before March 2025.