New season starting to roll

Football is coming alive again in Europe after the summer break - the preliminaries in the Champions, Europa and Conference leagues in 2025-26 are already underway and the big-gun leagues in Belgium and Switzerland kick off this weekend, when TAB soccer pools will offer plenty of chances to win solid payouts including a R150,000-added Soccer 10 on Friday night.

- By Mark Gleeson

There is plenty of jostling in the early stages of the new season's European club competitions as all participating clubs eye a berth in the money-spinning league phases later on.

But for many top clubs, this is a torturous path to follow, and there is still some way to go before they can be sure of competing in their group section. There will be 36 teams in the league phase of all three competitions - Champions League (won by Paris St Germain last season), Europa League (won by Tottenham Hotspur) and Conference League (won by Chelsea).

In the Champions League, 29 clubs enjoy direct entry. That means only seven places for teams coming through the qualifying and playoff rounds.

Many clubs with an illustrious past are trying to navigate their way through the preliminary rounds with many games played last night.