Essien selected for UEFA Champions League draw

Ex-Ghana and Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien has been named as a special guest to assist in the 2021/22 UEFA Champions League draw.

This season draw for the group stage will be held today, August 26, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Essien will be joined by former Chelsea teammate Branislav Ivanovic for the live draw.

The two were part of Chelsea’s maiden UEFA Champions League triumph in 2012 when they came up against German powerhouse Bayern Munich.

The draw will see the 32 qualified teams across Europe paired in eight groups of four each.

The teams will be split into four seeding pots.

Pot 1 will consist of the holders, the UEFA Europa League winners and the champions of the six highest-ranked nations who did not qualify via one of the 2020/21 continental titles.

Pots 2 to 4 will be determined by the club coefficient rankings.

Meanwhile, teams from the same national association will not be paired, and in the case of associations with two representatives, clubs will be paired in order to split their matches between Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

And when an association has four (or more) representatives, two pairings will be made. These pairings are to be based on TV audiences and will be confirmed before the draw ceremony.

Chelsea are the defending champions after their win over Manchester City in last season’s final for their second European title.

They are joined by Manchester City, Manchester United, and Liverpool as the teams from England.

Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla and Villarreal will represent Spain while Bayern Munich, RB Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund and VfL Wolfsburg represent Germany.

The Italian Serie A reps will be Inter Milan, AC Milan, Atalanta and Juventus.