62 63 teams entered this season. I've placed each team in one of four seeded pots for the draw, ranked in order of average team rating submitted by managers:

Pot 1
No. Team Rat Grp
1 Genoa 87
2 Levante 86
3 Juventus 85
4 Barcelona 84
5 Hellas Verona 84
6 Leicester City 84
7 Cologne 83
8 Sporting 83
9 Benfica 83
10 Bayern 83
Pot 2
No. Team Rat Grp
11 Dortmund 82
12 Hertha Berlin 82
13 Inter 82
14 Real Madrid 82
15 Aston Villa 81
16 Espanyol 81
17 Independiente 81
18 Montpellier 81
19 Schalke 81
20 Sampdoria 81
Pot 3
No. Team Rat Grp
21 AC Milan 80
22 Arsenal 80
23 Athletic Club 80
24 Atletico Madrid 80
25 Chelsea 80
26 Club Brugge 80
27 FC TWENTE 80
28 Manchester City Academy 80
29 Olympique MARSEILLE 80
30 River Plate 80
31 Shakhtar Donetsk 80
32 Standard Liege 80
33 CSKA 79
34 Dynamo Moskva 79
35 Manchester United 79
36 PSG 79
37 Santos 79
38 São Paulo 79
39 Torino 79
40 Bordeaux 79
Pot 4
No. Team Rat Grp
41 Atalanta 78
42 Besiktas 78
43 Dynamo Kyiv 78
44 Fc Basel 78
45 Hamburger 78
46 Leverkusen 78
47 Monchengladbach 78
48 Sevilla 78
49 West Bromwich Albion 78
50 Dinamo Zagreb 77
51 Flamengo 77
52 VfL Wolfsburg 77
53 AZ Alkmaar 77
54 Sassuolo 77
55 Augsburg 76
56 Tottenham 76
57 Villarreal 75
58 Celtic 74
59 Chievo Verona 74
60 Anderlecht 73
61 Fenerbache 72
62 LYON 71

EDIT: Last minute entry from Lazio in Pot 3, ave. rating 80. Lazio will be no. 63 in the draw.

The Draw

Each team will be drawn at random to play in one of nine groups in total:

  • Eight Nine groups of seven teams
  • One group of six teams

In each group there will be:

  • no more than two teams from Pot 1 (in a group with two teams from Pot 1, there will be only one team from Pot 2)
  • no more than two teams from Pot 2 (in a group with two teams from Pot 2, there will be only one team from Pot 1)
  • no more than three teams from Pot 3
  • no more than three teams from Pot 4

I hope to do a live draw Friday morning (tomorrow). Eeek!

Group Stage

Each team will play each other team in the group once, every Saturday from 10 February to 30 23 March. (or 23 March for the Group of Six).

Fixture schedule and results for the Group Stage will be posted on Challonge.com as usual (ignore the "Final Stage" on Challonge - I will set up a new tournament for the Knockout Stage).

Knockout Stages

The top three teams in each group will qualify for the knockout stage of the Youth Cup, along with the the five best fourth placed teams.

The remaining four fourth placed teams will drop into the Youth Shield knockout stage, along with all nine fifth placed teams and the three best sixth placed teams. They will be joined by the sixteen losers from the Youth Cup 1st Round.

The Knockout Stage will be every Saturday from 6 April with a one leg 1st Round in the Youth Cup. The 2nd Round to the Final on 25 May and 1 June will all be two legs.

The Youth Shield will be every Saturday from 13 April with one leg 1st and 2nd Rounds. The Quarter Finals to the Final on 25 May and 1 June will all be two legs.

Disputes

In the event of a dispute, my decision will be final, but, if possible, I will favour teams and managers who have not forfeited any games.