UEFA has confirmed that Europe's top four leagues will have four guaranteed places in the Champions League group stage from the 2018-19 season.

The top four leagues in the UEFA coefficient ranking -- currently La Liga, the Bundesliga, Premier League and Serie A -- will see four teams enter the group stage without having to go through a qualification round.

La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Premier League are guaranteed three group spots, with a fourth possible through the qualifying round, while Serie A has two guaranteed spots and a third possible via qualification.

The Premier League were in danger of losing one of its places to Serie A.

The top flights in Russia, Portugal and France are currently all vying to be Europe's fifth-ranked division but are some distance behind the current top four.

UEFA has drawn their group pairings for the 2016-17 Champions League.

Group A: PSG, Arsenal, Basel, Ludogorets

Group B: Benfica, Napoli, Dynamo Kyiv, Besiktas

Group C: Barcelona, Man City, Gladbach, Celtic

Group D: Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, PSV, Rostov

Group E: CSKA, Leverkusen, Tottenham Hotspur, Monaco

Group F: Real Madrid, Dortmund, Sporting CP, Legia

Group G: Leicester City, Porto, Club Brugge, Copenhagen

Group H: Juventus, Sevilla, Lyon, Dinamo Zagreb

The four pots for Thursday's Champions League group stage draw have been set. The draw will take place at noon EST.

Pot 1 contains the seeded teams, featuring holders Real Madrid and the champions of the top seven leagues: Barcelona, Leicester City, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Benfica, PSG and CSKA Moscow.

Pot 1: Real Madrid (holders), Barcelona, Leicester City, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Benfica, PSG, CSKA Moscow

Pot 2: Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, Manchester City, Sevilla, Porto, Napoli, Bayer Leverkusen

Pot 3: FC Basel, Tottenham Hotspur, Dynamo Kiev, Lyon, PSV Eindhoven, Sporting CP, Club Brugge, Borussia Monchengladbach

Pot 4: Celtic, AS Monaco, Besiktas, Legia Warsaw, Dinamo Zagreb, Ludogorets Razgrad, FC Copenhagen, Rostov

The top four European leagues are set to automatically qualify four teams each to the group stage of the Champions League from 2018-19, according to multiple sources.

UEFA's executive committee is expected to approve the measure when it meets later this month, sources said, part of a set of changes to the European competition that will be implemented for the cycle between 2018-2021.

The club competition committee, led by Fernando Gomes of the Portuguese Football Federation, had been involved in tough negotiations for some six months with stakeholders, including a number of clubs from top leagues who threatened to boycott the Champions League if their demands were not met.

According to sources, the demands had included entry to European competition based on "historic merit" -- a "parachute" for popular clubs who fail to qualify on the pitch -- as well as the possibility of European ties to be played at weekends so as to increase broadcast audiences, and the creation of a new entity -- co-owned by UEFA and the clubs themselves -- to run the Champions League.

Based on the current UEFA country coefficient ranking, the four countries who would benefit directly from the measures are Spain, Germany, England and Italy.