Liverpool’s squad for their Champions League return has now been officially confirmed, with Conor Bradley, Harvey Elliott and Jarell Quansah among the initial absentees.
However, while that trio do not feature on the Reds’ 24-strong Player List A for the new-look opening league phase of Europe’s top club competition, they are expected to be named on List B and still be available to manager Arne Slot.
Liverpool explained on Wednesday that none of Bradley, Elliott nor Quansah needed to be included on List A, given that they all meet the necessary criteria for inclusion on List B.
Current UEFA regulations state: “A player may be registered on List B if he is born on or after 1 January 2003 and has, since his 15th birthday, been eligible to play for the club concerned for any uninterrupted period of two years, or a total of three consecutive years with a maximum of one loan period to a club from the same association for a period not longer than one year.
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“Players aged 16 may be registered on List B if they have been registered with the participating club for the previous two years without interruption.”
Liverpool confirmed that Bradley, Elliott and Quansah are all eligible for List B, which does not have restrictions in terms of size and can be altered before each game, with several other youngsters likely to be included alongside them.
There are no surprises in Slot’s List A, with Liverpool naming 24 players out of a possible 25 ahead of their first fixture away to Serie A giants AC Milan at the San Siro on Tuesday, September 17.
New signing Federico Chiesa is among the names included, along with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson Becker, Luis Diaz, Wataru Endo, Cody Gakpo, Joe Gomez, Ryan Gravenberch, Curtis Jones, Diogo Jota, Caoimhin Kelleher, Ibrahima Konate, Alexis Mac Allister, Darwin Nunez, Andy Robertson, Mohamed Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai, Kostas Tsimikas and captain Virgil van Dijk.
Eight locally-trained players also have to be included on List A per Uefa rules, with Liverpool also opting for youngsters Thomas Hill, Vitezslav Jaros, Tyler Morton, Amara Nallo and Trey Nyoni among that number.
After travelling to Milan, Liverpool host another Serie A side in Bologna on October 2 in their first home match of the revamped Champions League that has seen Uefa replace the traditional group stage with a new 36-team league phase in which the top eight finishers will all progress automatically through to the last 16, with the clubs from ninth to 24th contesting a two-legged play-off round and those that come 25th and below eliminated from European football altogether in the New Year, with no safety net of entry into the Europa League.
They travel to RB Leipzig on October 23 before hosting both reigning Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen and Champions League holders Real Madrid in November. A trip to Girona awaits in December, before a home game against Lille and visit to PSV Eindhoven to finish off the opening phase in January.
