Champions League draw to set 36-team field for new league phase in Monaco
UEFA will confirm fixtures for the 2026-27 Champions League on 27 August, with the competition commencing on 8 September and concluding in Madrid.
The UEFA Champions League league phase draw is scheduled for Thursday, 27 August, at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. The event will determine the fixtures for the 36 teams participating in the competition, which replaces the traditional group stage format. The league phase is set to commence on Tuesday, 8 September, with the final scheduled for 5 June at Madrid’s Metropolitano Stadium.
The draw follows the conclusion of the final qualification rounds on Wednesday, 26 August. Seven clubs advanced to complete the field, including Sabah, Bodo/Glimt, LASK, AEK Athens, Fenerbahce, Viking, and Slovan Bratislava. These results finalise the participant list for the new single-table format, where teams are ranked against one another rather than grouped into smaller units.
Paris Saint-Germain enter the competition as back-to-back champions after defeating Arsenal in the previous season’s final. The field also includes established heavyweights such as Arsenal, Bayern Munich, and Barcelona. Manchester United return to the competition after a two-season absence, while Italian side Como is noted as a significant newcomer to the European stage.
For the draw, the 36 teams are divided into four pots based on their five-year UEFA club coefficients. The reigning champions are always placed in Pot 1, while the remaining teams are allocated according to their ranking. Each club will play eight matches in the league phase, facing two teams from every pot, with four games played at home and four away.
The outcome of the league phase will dictate the path to the knockout rounds. The top eight teams will advance directly to the round of 16. Clubs ranked ninth to 24th will enter the knockout phase playoffs, competing for the remaining spots in the last 16. Teams ranked 25th and below will be eliminated from the competition.
The draw process involves selecting team names from bowls on stage, with a button press used to randomly assign the specific schedule for each club. This mechanism ensures that fixture pairings are determined by chance once the pot allocations are set.
