The 2025–26 UEFA Champions League will be the 71st season of Europe's premier club

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tournament organised by

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

, and the 34th season since it was rebranded from the European Cup to the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

. The

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

will be played on 30 May 2026 at Puskás Aréna in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

, Hungary. The winners of the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League will automatically qualify for the 2026–27 UEFA Champions League league phase, the 2026 FIFA Intercontinental Cup finals, the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup group stage, and earn the right to play against the winners of the 2025–26 UEFA Europa League in the 2026 UEFA Super Cup. It will be the first Champions League season with more than five teams from one country, with England being represented by six teams. Paris Saint-Germain are the defending champions, having secured their inaugural title the previous season.

Association team allocation

A total of 82 teams from 53 of the 55

member associations are set to participate in the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League (the exceptions being

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (, ; ; ), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein ( ), is a Landlocked country#Doubly landlocked, doubly landlocked Swiss Standard German, German-speaking microstate in the Central European Alps, between Austria in the east ...

which does not organise a domestic league and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

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: *Associations 1–5 each have four teams. *Association 6 has three teams. *Associations 7–15 each have two teams. *Associations 16–55 (except

and

) each have one team. *The winners of the 2024–25 UEFA Champions League and 2024–25 UEFA Europa League are each given an additional entry if they do not qualify for the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League through their domestic league. *The two associations with the best

coefficients In mathematics, a coefficient is a multiplicative factor involved in some term of a polynomial, a series, or any other type of expression. It may be a number without units, in which case it is known as a numerical factor. It may also be a ...

in the 2024–25 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 2025–26 UEFA Champions League, the associations are allocated places according to their 2024 UEFA association coefficients, which takes into account their performance in European competitions from 2019–20 to 2023–24. 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: * – European Performance Spot, the additional berths for associations who finish in the top 2 of the 2024–25 association coefficients * – Additional berth for UEFA Champions League title holders * – Additional berth for UEFA Europa League title holders

Distribution

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 champions of associations 23 (Cyprus) and 24 (Hungary) 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 have been made: * Olympiacos as the club with the highest club coefficient 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. * Slovan Bratislava and Qarabağ, 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.

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 2024–25 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).

Round and draw dates

The schedule of the competition is as follows. One "exclusive week" will be held in which Thursday will also be a matchday. All matches in other weeks will be played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays apart from Matchday 8 (Wednesday only) and the final.

Qualifying rounds

First qualifying round

Second qualifying round

Third qualifying round

Play-off round

League phase

The league phase draw for the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League will take place at the Grimaldi Forum in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

on 28 August 2025. The 36 teams will be divided into four pots of nine teams each based on their UEFA club coefficient, except for the Champions League title holders, who are automatically placed as the top seed in pot 1. The 36 teams will be manually drawn and then automated software will draw their eight different opponents at random, determining which of their matches are at home and which ones away. Each team faces two opponents from each of the four pots, one at home and one away. Teams cannot face opponents from their own association, and can only be drawn against a maximum of two sides from the same association. Union Saint-Gilloise will make their debut appearance in the league phase/group stage. As of 25 May 2025, the following teams have qualified for the league phase: Pot 1 :(TH) Paris Saint-Germain, CC: 118.500 :(1)

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

, CC: 143.500 :(2) Manchester City, CC: 137.750 :(3) Bayern Munich, CC: 135.250 :(4)

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, CC: 125.500 :(6)

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

, CC: 116.250 :(7) Chelsea, CC: 109.000 :(8)

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

, CC: 106.750 :(10)

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, CC: 103.250 Pot 2 :(12)

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

, CC: 98.000 :(13)

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

, CC: 95.250 :(14) Atlético Madrid, CC: 93.500 :(16)

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

, CC: 82.000 :(17) Villarreal, CC: 82.000 :(22)

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

, CC: 74.250 :(23)

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a German professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The club currently plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German footb ...

, CC: 74.000 Pot 2/3 :(27) Tottenham Hotspur, CC: 70.250 :(28)

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

, CC: 69.250 Pot 3 :(30)

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

, CC: 67.250 :(34) Napoli, CC: 61.000 :(35)

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

, CC: 59.000 :(37) Olympiacos, CC: 56.500 :(42) Slavia Prague, CC: 51.000 :(44)

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, CC: 48.000 Pot 3/4 :(54)

, CC: 41.000 :(58) Galatasaray, CC: 38.250 :(61) Union Saint-Gilloise CC: 36.000 Pot 4 :(75)

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club (; ), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao (), or simply Athletic, is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Southern Basque Country, Basque Country, Spain. They are known ...

, CC: 26.750 :(83) Newcastle United, CC: 23.039

Table

The table as it stands before the draw at the end of August

Results

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:2025-26 UEFA Champions League UEFA Champions League seasons 1 1