Champions League Draw & TV Pairings

I'm pretty sure we'll get Barca at group stage.

They can't draw Valencia/Athletico/Madrid/Sevilla (If they get nudged into pot 2).

One of us/Arsenal/United will be paired with Chelsea, (most likely us going off both viewing figures and the fact there are two Manchester and two London teams) which means one of Arsenal/United will automatically be moved to the opposite side of the draw to Barca (will definitely be United - if it's rigged for viewing figures), that leaves us, Arsenal and Porto a 1/3 chance of getting drawn against Barca, stretching to a 1/4 chance if Sevilla don't achieve Pot 2.

Sky paired us with Utd for our 1st CL campaign but then subsequently paired us with Arsenal which along with the UEFA "Teams less than 31 miles apart can only play on the same night if the police are happy" rule forces us to play on a different night at home than Utd. As the 1st choice broadcaster this always gave them a Utd (Liverpool)/Arse game on the night of their broadcast slot to chose from.
Note: GM and Merkeyside plod are not happy having foreign teams in town/region on the same day. London have to deal with this without excuse due to there being 5+ teams in the same location.

The interesting thing will be what will BT do? They broadcast all the games. I think they are likely to pair United with Arsenal and us with Chelsea to get one big TV rating game each night. This will have implications for us in the draw. I.e. half the teams in Pot 1 will be ruled out to us as soon as Chelsea are placed into a red or blue group.
 
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Apologies if this has already been asked, but what time is the draw scheduled to start tomorrow? I need to avoid booking any meetings...
 
I wouldn't mind Bayern again to be honest because they look crap at the moment and who can say no to a potential trip to Munich in the middle of Oktoberfest. Obviously PSV or Zenit are going to be our pick from pot 1 but they still aren't easy games and the rest are tough teams which makes it irrelevant really.

The other pots aren't so bad provided we avoid Sevilla and Valencia. Either way and whatever happens I don't know why anyone is surprised, this is the Champions League and no matter what the draw will always be tough on us. We have to destroy every single team until we are lifting the trophy.
 
Sky paired us with Utd for our 1st CL campaign but then subsequently paired us with Arsenal which along with the UEFA "Teams less than 31 miles apart can only play on the same night if the police are happy" rule forces us to play on a different night at home than Utd. As the 1st choice broadcaster this always gave them a Utd (Liverpool)/Arse game on the night of their broadcast slot to chose from.
Note: GM and Merkeyside plod are not happy having foreign teams in town/region on the same day. London have to deal with this without excuse due to there being 5+ teams in the same location.

The interesting thing will be what will BT do? They broadcast all the games. I think they are likely to pair United with Arsenal and us with Chelsea to get one big TV rating game each night. This will have implications for us in the draw. I.e. half the teams in Pot 1 will be ruled out to us as soon as Chelsea are placed into a red or blue group.

I think you're right, I'd imagine it will be Chelsea/Barca paired together. How does it work in terms of the TV ratings? Do they just use Pot 1 sides to determine things or will it change slightly now Pot 1 is formed of the champions of the different leagues? Before it was slightly different because Barca and Real would be pot 1 and so would Chelsea and Arsenal/the rags so it made sense to split them at that stage.

If Barca are paired with Chelsea, it could be that Barca get drawn with the Rags and Chelsea with Real Madrid. That would mean Chelsea and the rags, barca and real all on the same night. I'm assuming they'll only allow certain teams into the pot to stop this happening? This will show how rigged the system is though, even more so than in past years.

Essentially means when Barca get picked out they only allow us from the English contingent because of TV pairings, and then Porto/Leverkusen (potentially) and one other... is this how it would work?
 

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