2025–26 UEFA Champions League
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The 2025–26 UEFA Champions League. The 71st season of Europe's premier club football tournament, and the 34th since its rebranding from the European Cup. Paris Saint-Germain, the reigning champions, are back to defend their maiden title. The grand finale unfolds on May 30th, 2026, at the magnificent Puskás Aréna in Budapest, Hungary – a stadium making its Champions League final debut after hosting other prestigious UEFA events. The victors of this season's clash will secure automatic berths into the 2026–27 Champions League league phase, the 2026 FIFA Intercontinental Cup final, the 2029 FIFA Club World Cup group stage, and earn a shot at the 2026 UEFA Super Cup against the Europa League champions.
This season breaks new ground with six clubs hailing from a single nation, England, thanks to their UEFA coefficient ranking and Tottenham Hotspur's Europa League triumph.
A total of 82 teams from 53 UEFA member associations will vie for glory. The allocation of spots is determined by the UEFA association coefficients, with the top five associations earning four teams each, followed by a tiered system for the rest. Winners of the previous Champions League and Europa League secure additional entries if they haven't qualified through their domestic leagues. Furthermore, the top two associations in the 2024–25 season will be awarded a European Performance Spot into the league phase.
The association ranking for this season's Champions League is based on the 2024 UEFA association coefficients, reflecting performance from 2019 to 2024. Additional berths are available for European Performance Spots, Champions League title holders, and Europa League title holders. Due to Russia's ongoing suspension, teams from Cyprus and Hungary will enter the second qualifying round. As Paris Saint-Germain qualified through their domestic league, Olympiacos, with the highest club coefficient, enters the league phase directly, while Slovan Bratislava and Qarabağ advance to the second qualifying round of the Champions Path.
Teams will be identified by their qualification route: TH for Champions League title holders, EL for Europa League title holders, league positions, and EPS for European Performance Spots. The qualifying rounds are split into Champions Path and League Path.
The competition kicks off with qualifying rounds, beginning with the first qualifying round draw on June 17th, 2025. First legs take place on July 8th and 9th, with second legs on July 15th and 16th. Winners progress to the second qualifying round, while some losing teams are transferred to the Conference League. The second qualifying round draw is on June 18th, with matches on July 22nd and 23rd, and July 29th and 30th. Losers here move to the Europa League third qualifying round. The third qualifying round draw is on July 21st, with first legs on August 5th and 6th, and second legs on August 12th. Champions Path losers go to the Europa League play-off round, while League Path losers enter the Europa League league phase.
The play-off round draw is on August 4th, 2025. First legs are on August 19th and 20th, and second legs on August 26th and 27th. Winners advance to the league phase, while losers enter the Europa League league phase.
The league phase draw takes place on August 28th, 2025, in Monaco. Thirty-six teams will be divided into four pots, with the Champions League title holders as the top seed in pot one. Each team will face eight different opponents from the other pots, one at home and one away, with restrictions on facing teams from the same association.
This season marks the league phase debut for Bodø/Glimt, Kairat, Pafos, and Union Saint-Gilloise. Kairat, from Almaty, becomes the easternmost team to reach the Champions League proper, undertaking a record-breaking journey to Lisbon. Bodø/Glimt, based within the Arctic Circle, becomes the northernmost European competitor. This is the first time a Norwegian team has featured in the competition proper since 2007–08, and no Ukrainian sides have qualified for the league phase since 2005–06. Sixteen national associations are represented in this phase.
The league phase table sees the top eight teams directly qualify for the round of 16. Teams ranked 9th to 24th will contest knockout phase play-offs, with the top eight of that group seeded. Those ranked 25th to 36th are eliminated from all European competitions.
Statistics, excluding qualifying and play-off rounds, will be updated as of September 18th, 2025, including top goalscorers.
Don't miss the 2025–26 UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Women's Champions League, UEFA Women's Europa Cup, and UEFA Youth League.
For more information, visit the official website.
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The 2025–26 UEFA Champions League is the 71st season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 34th season since it was rebranded from the European Cup to the UEFA Champions League. Paris Saint-Germain are the defending champions, having secured their maiden title the previous season.
The final will be played on 30 May 2026 at Puskás Aréna in Budapest, Hungary. It will be the first time Puskás Aréna will host a Champions League final. The stadium previously hosted the 2020 UEFA Super Cup, several matches of UEFA Euro 2020, and the 2023 UEFA Europa League final. 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 final, 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.
This is the first Champions League season to feature six clubs from one nation, with England earning an extra spot through UEFA coefficient ranking and Tottenham Hotspur having won the previous season's Europa League.
== Association team allocation ==
A total of 82 teams from 53 of the 55 UEFA member associations are set to participate in the 2025–26 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:
Associations 1–5 each have four teams.
Association 6 has three teams.
Associations 7–15 each have two teams.
Associations 16–55 (except Liechtenstein and Russia) 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 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:
(EPS) – European Performance Spot, the additional berths for associations who finish in the top 2 of the 2024–25 association coefficients
(TH) – Additional berth for UEFA Champions League title holders
(EL) – 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).
== Schedule ==
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 ===
The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 17 June 2025.
The first legs were played on 8 and 9 July, and the second legs were played on 15 and 16 July 2025.
The winners of the ties advanced to the Champions Path second qualifying round. Twelve of the losing teams were transferred to the Conference League Champions Path second qualifying round, and the other two losing teams (selected via a draw) were transferred to the Conference League Champions Path third qualifying round.
=== Second qualifying round ===
The draw for the second qualifying round was held on 18 June 2025.
The first legs were played on 22 and 23 July, and the second legs were played on 29 and 30 July 2025.
The winners of the ties advanced to the third qualifying round. The losers were transferred to the Europa League third qualifying round.
=== Third qualifying round ===
The draw for the third qualifying round was held on 21 July 2025.
The first legs were played on 5 and 6 August, and the second legs were played on 12 August 2025.
The winners of the ties advanced to the play-off round. The losers of the Champions Path were transferred to the Europa League play-off round. The losers of the League Path were transferred to the Europa League league phase.
== Play-off round ==
The draw for the play-off round was held on 4 August 2025.
The first legs were played on 19 and 20 August, and the second legs were played on 26 and 27 August 2025.
The winners of the ties advanced to the league phase. The losers were transferred to the Europa League league phase.
== League phase ==
The league phase draw for the 2025–26 UEFA Champions League took place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on 28 August 2025. The 36 teams were divided into four pots of nine teams each based on their UEFA club coefficient, except for the Champions League title holders, who were automatically placed as the top seed in pot 1.
The 36 teams were manually drawn and then automated software drew 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 could not face opponents from their own association, and could only be drawn against a maximum of two sides from the same association.
Bodø/Glimt, Kairat, Pafos and Union Saint-Gilloise made their debut appearances in the league phase/group stage. Kairat, based in Almaty, became the easternmost team to ever qualify for the Champions League proper, and, after being drawn to play away against Sporting CP, broke the record for the longest trip in UEFA competitions, travelling approximately 7,200 km from Almaty to Lisbon, taking into account that the Portuguese authorities banned incoming flights that travel through Russian airspace, a measure taken due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In addition, Bodø/Glimt, based in Bodø within the Arctic Circle, became the northernmost European team to ever compete in the Champions League. This marks the first time a Norwegian team has participated in the competition proper since the 2007–08 season, and will also be the first season since 2005–06 in which no Ukrainian sides qualified for the group stage/league phase.
A total of 16 national associations are represented in the league phase.
=== Table ===
The top eight ranked teams will receive a bye to the round of 16. The teams ranked from 9th to 24th will contest the knockout phase play-offs, with the teams ranked from 9th to 16th seeded for the draw. Teams ranked from 25th to 36th will be eliminated from all competitions, with no access to the 2025–26 UEFA Europa League.
=== Results ===
== Statistics ==
Statistics exclude qualifying rounds and play-off round.
Table correct as of 18 September 2025.
=== Top goalscorers ===
== See also ==
2025–26 UEFA Europa League
2025–26 UEFA Conference League
2026 UEFA Super Cup
2025–26 UEFA Women's Champions League
2025–26 UEFA Women's Europa Cup
2025–26 UEFA Youth League
== References ==
== External links ==
Official website
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