2026–27 UEFA Champions League
International football competition
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2026–27 UEFA Champions League will be the 72nd season of Europe's premier football tournament organised by UEFA and the 35th season since it was rebranded from the European Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The season will begin on 7 July 2026 with qualifiers and the league phase will start on 8 September 2026.
Total: 81 (from 53 associations)
Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid will host the final | |
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 7 July 2026 – 5 June 2027 |
| Teams | Competition proper: 36 Total: 81 (from 53 associations) |
← 2025–26 2027–28 → | |
The final will be held on 5 June 2027 at Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid, Spain.[1] It will be the second time Metropolitano Stadium has hosted the UEFA Champions League final after 2019. The winners of the 2026–27 UEFA Champions League will automatically qualify for the 2027–28 UEFA Champions League league phase, the 2027 FIFA Intercontinental Cup final, the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup group stage and earn the right to play against the winners of the 2026–27 UEFA Europa League in the 2027 UEFA Super Cup.
Paris Saint-Germain are the two-time defending champions.
Association team allocation
A total of 81 teams from 53 of the 55 UEFA member associations are set to participate in the 2026–27 UEFA Champions League (the exceptions being Liechtenstein which does not organise a domestic league and Russia which is currently suspended). The association ranking based on the UEFA association coefficients is used to determine the number of participating teams for each association:[2]
- Associations 1–5 each have four teams.
- Association 6 has three teams.
- Associations 7–15 each have two teams.
- Associations 16–55 (except Russia[Note RUS] and Liechtenstein[Note LIE]) each have one team.
- The winners of the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League and 2025–26 UEFA Europa League are each given an additional entry if they do not qualify for the 2026–27 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league.
- The two associations with the best coefficients in the 2025–26 season will each have one European Performance Spot into the league phase. The winners of the UEFA Champions League and Europa League cannot fill the European Performance Spots.
Association ranking
For the 2026–27 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2025 UEFA association coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2020–21 to 2024–25.[3] The table reflects Russia's ongoing suspension from UEFA.
Apart from the allocation based on the association coefficients, associations may have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below:
- (EPS) – European Performance Spot, the additional berths for associations who finish in the top 2 of the 2025–26 association coefficients
- (TH) – Additional berth for UEFA Champions League title holders
- (EL) – Additional berth for UEFA Europa League title holders
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Distribution
| Teams entering in this round | Teams advancing from the previous round | ||
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| First qualifying round (28 teams) |
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| Second qualifying round (28 teams) |
Champions Path (24 teams) |
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| League Path (4 teams) |
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| Third qualifying round (20 teams) |
Champions Path (12 teams) |
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| League Path (8 teams) |
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| Play-off round (14 teams) |
Champions Path (10 teams) |
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| League Path (4 teams) |
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| League phase (36 teams) |
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| Knockout phase play-offs (16 teams) |
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| Round of 16 (16 teams) |
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The information here reflects the ongoing suspension of Russia in European football, and so the following changes to the default access list have been made:
- The champion of association 23 (Ukraine) will enter the second qualifying round (Champions Path) instead of the first qualifying round.
As the Champions League title holders (Paris Saint-Germain) qualified via their domestic league's standard berth allocation, the following changes to the default access list were made:
- Shakhtar Donetsk as the domestic champion with the highest club coefficient among the clubs that would otherwise have entered the Champions Path of the qualifying phase or play-off round, will enter the league phase instead of the Champions Path second qualifying round.[4]
- Slovan Bratislava and Celje, as the two clubs with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the Champions Path first qualifying round, will enter the Champions Path second qualifying round.
As the Europa League title holders (Aston Villa) qualified via their domestic league's standard berth allocation, the following changes to the default access list were made:
- Sporting CP, as the club with the highest club coefficient among all clubs that would otherwise have entered either the Champions Path or the League Path of the qualifying phase or play-off round, will enter the league phase instead of the League Path third qualifying round.[5]
- Bodø/Glimt and Olympiacos, as the two clubs with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the League Path second qualifying round, will enter the League Path third qualifying round.
Teams
The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
- TH: Champions League title holders
- EL: Europa League title holders
- 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.: League positions of the previous season
- EPS: European Performance Spots – the additional berths given to clubs from the two associations with the highest coefficient points in 2025–26
The label of European Performance Spots and title holders already qualified via league position are superscripted.
The second qualifying round, third qualifying round and play-off round are divided into Champions Path (CH) and League Path (LP).
- ^ Liechtenstein (LIE): The seven teams affiliated with the Liechtenstein Football Association (LFV) all play in the Swiss football league system. The only competition organised by the LFV is the Liechtenstein Football Cup – the winners of which qualify for the UEFA Conference League for the 2026–27 season.
- ^ Russia (RUS): On 28 February 2022, Russian football clubs and national teams were suspended from FIFA and UEFA competitions due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[6] The tables reflect Russia's ongoing suspension from UEFA competitions.[7]
Schedule
The schedule of the competition is as follows.[8]
| Phase | Round | Draw date | First leg | Second leg |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying | First qualifying round | 16 June 2026 | 7–8 July 2026 | 14–15 July 2026 |
| Second qualifying round | 17 June 2026 | 21–22 July 2026 | 28–29 July 2026 | |
| Third qualifying round | 20 July 2026 | 4–5 August 2026 | 11 August 2026 | |
| Play-offs | Play-off round | 3 August 2026 | 18–19 August 2026 | 25–26 August 2026 |
| League phase | Matchday 1 | 27 August 2026 | 8–10 September 2026 | |
| Matchday 2 | 13–14 October 2026 | |||
| Matchday 3 | 20–21 October 2026 | |||
| Matchday 4 | 3–4 November 2026 | |||
| Matchday 5 | 24–25 November 2026 | |||
| Matchday 6 | 8–9 December 2026 | |||
| Matchday 7 | 19–20 January 2027 | |||
| Matchday 8 | 27 January 2027 | |||
| Knockout phase | Knockout phase play-offs | 29 January 2027 | 16–17 February 2027 | 23–24 February 2027 |
| Round of 16 | 26 February 2027 | 9–10 March 2027 | 16–17 March 2027 | |
| Quarter-finals | N/a | 6–7 April 2027 | 13–14 April 2027 | |
| Semi-finals | 27–28 April 2027 | 4–5 May 2027 | ||
| Final | 5 June 2027 at Metropolitano Stadium, Madrid | |||
Qualifying rounds
First qualifying round
The draw for the first qualifying round will be held on 16 June 2026.
Seeding
A total of 28 teams will play in the first qualifying round. Seeding of the teams will be based on their 2026 UEFA club coefficients.[9] Before the draw, UEFA may form groups of seeded and unseeded teams per the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee. The first team drawn in each tie will be the home team for the first leg.
| Seeded | Unseeded |
|---|---|
Second qualifying round
The draw for the second qualifying round will be held on 17 June 2026.
Seeding
A total of 28 will play in the second qualifying round. Seeding of the teams will be based on their 2026 UEFA club coefficients.[9] Before the draw, UEFA may form groups of seeded and unseeded teams per the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee. The first team drawn in each tie will be the home team for the first leg.
| Seeded | Unseeded |
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| Seeded | Unseeded |
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Third qualifying round
The draw for the third qualifying round will be held on 20 July 2026.
Seeding
A total of 20 teams will play in the third qualifying round. Seeding of the teams will be based on their 2026 UEFA club coefficients.[9] Before the draw, UEFA may form groups of seeded and unseeded teams per the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee. The first team drawn in each tie will be the home team for the first leg.
| Seeded | Unseeded |
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| Seeded | Unseeded |
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Play-off round
The draw for the play-off round will be held on 3 August 2026.
Seeding
A total of 14 teams will play in the play-off round. Seeding of the teams will be based on their 2026 UEFA club coefficients.[9] Before the draw, UEFA may form groups of seeded and unseeded teams per the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee. The first team drawn in each tie will be the home team for the first leg.
| Seeded | To be confirmed | Unseeded |
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| Seeded | Unseeded |
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League phase
Madrid
Como will make their debut appearance in the league phase/group stage. They also qualified for European football for the first time in their history.
As of 24 May 2026[update], 29 out of 36 teams have qualified for the league phase:
Arsenal- Manchester City
- Manchester United
- Aston Villa
- Liverpool
Inter Milan- Napoli
- Roma
- Como
Barcelona- Real Madrid
- Villarreal
- Atlético Madrid
- Real Betis
Bayern Munich- Borussia Dortmund
- RB Leipzig
- VfB Stuttgart
Paris Saint-Germain- Lens
- Lille
PSV Eindhoven- Feyenoord
Porto- Sporting CP
Club Brugge
Slavia Prague
Galatasaray
Shakhtar Donetsk
The following is a provisional allocation of the qualified teams into seeding pots, based on their UEFA club coefficients.
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Pot 1
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Pot 2
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Pot 3
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Pot 3/4
Pot 4
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