Monaco to Host 2026–27 UEFA Champions League League Phase Draw

The draw for the 2026–27 UEFA Champions League league phase takes place on Thursday at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, setting the fixture schedule for Europe’s primary club football tournament. The ceremony begins at 5:00 p.m. BST (12:00 p.m. ET) as 36 clubs prepare to discover their opponents for the opening stage of the competition.

Paris Saint-Germain enter the tournament as defending champions seeking a third consecutive title. They are joined by 28 other automatic qualifiers from across the continent, alongside seven clubs that secured their positions through the qualifying rounds completed earlier in the week.

England and Spain are each represented by five clubs in the main draw. England’s entrants comprise Arsenal, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Manchester City, and Manchester United, while Spain’s contingent includes Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Betis, Real Madrid, and Villarreal. Four Italian clubs—AS Roma, Como, Internazionale, and Napoli—have qualified, with Como making their debut in the competition. Germany also fields four teams: Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, and VfB Stuttgart. France is represented by Lens, Lille, and Paris Saint-Germain.

The remaining direct places belong to Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven from the Netherlands; Porto and Sporting CP from Portugal; Club Brugge from Belgium; Slavia Prague from Czechia; Galatasaray from Türkiye; and Shakhtar Donetsk from Ukraine.

To determine the schedule, the 36 participating clubs are separated into four pots of nine teams based on their five-year UEFA club coefficient rankings. As the titleholders, Paris Saint-Germain automatically receive a spot in Pot 1 regardless of coefficient ranking. The draw assigns each team eight distinct opponents—two from each of the four pots—resulting in four home matches and four away matches per team. Under UEFA rules, clubs cannot be drawn against opponents from their domestic league during this phase.

All participating teams are ranked in a single 36-team standings table throughout the initial phase, which concludes in January. Teams finishing in the top eight positions advance directly to the round of 16 scheduled for March. Clubs finishing from 9th to 24th place enter a two-legged playoff round in February to compete for the remaining eight spots in the last 16. The teams placed 25th to 36th are eliminated at the end of the league phase.

Background

UEFA updated the Champions League format to replace the traditional four-team group stage with a single 36-team league system. Under this structure, every participating club plays eight matches against eight different opponents during the first stage, rather than facing three teams twice. Previous iterations under the expanded format have seen several prominent European clubs fail to reach the automatic knockout spots or experience early eliminations during the initial months of the season.