Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid will host the final.
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| Tournament details | |
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| Dates | 7 July 2026 – 5 June 2027 |
| Teams | Competition proper: 36 Total: 83 (from 53 associations) |
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← 2025–26
2027–28 →
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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.
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.
Association team allocation
A total of 83 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 (30 teams) |
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| Second qualifying round (30 teams) |
Champions Path (24 teams) |
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| League Path (6 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.
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).
| Entry round | Teams | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| League phase | TH[Note CHA] | EL | EPS |  Arsenal (1st/2nd) |
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| Manchester City (1st/2nd/3rd) |
Manchester United (2nd/3rd/4th/5th) |
(3rd/4th) |
(4th/5th)EPS |
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 Inter Milan (1st) |
(2nd) |
(3rd) |
(4th) |
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 Barcelona (1st/2nd) |
Real Madrid (1st/2nd/3rd) |
Villarreal (2nd/3rd/4th) |
(3rd/4th) |
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 Bayern Munich (1st) |
Borussia Dortmund (2nd/3rd) |
(2nd/3rd) |
(4th) |
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 Paris Saint-Germain (1st/2nd) |
(1st/2nd)[Note FRA] |
(3rd)[Note FRA] |
 PSV Eindhoven (1st) |
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| (2nd) |
 Porto (1st) |
 (1st) |
 (1st)[Note CZE] |
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 (1st)[Note TUR] |
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| Play-off round | CH |  Viking (1st) |
 (1st) |
 (1st) |
 (1st) |
| Third qualifying round | LP | (4th)[Note FRA] |
(3rd) |
(2nd) |
(2nd) |
| (2nd)[Note CZE] |
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| Second qualifying round | CH |  (1st) |
 (1st) |
 Thun (1st) |
 (1st) |
 Omonia (1st) |
 Mjällby AIF (1st) |
 Dinamo Zagreb (1st) |
 Red Star Belgrade (1st) |
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 (1st) |
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| LP | (2nd)[Note TUR] |
Bodø/Glimt (2nd) |
(2nd) |
(2nd) |
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| (2nd) |
(2nd) |
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| First qualifying round | CH |  (1st) |
 (1st) |
 Slovan Bratislava (1st) |
 Celje (1st) |
 Levski Sofia (1st) |
 Sabah (1st) |
 Shamrock Rovers (1st) |
 (1st) |
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 Víkingur Reykjavík (1st) |
 Borac Banja Luka (1st) |
 (1st) |
 Riga (1st) |
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 (1st) |
 KuPS (1st) |
 Kairat (1st) |
 KÍ (1st) |
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 (1st) |
 Larne (1st) |
 Kauno Žalgiris (1st) |
 Flora (1st) |
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 (1st) |
 (1st) |
 (1st) |
 The New Saints (1st) |
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 Iberia 1999 (1st) |
 (1st) |
 ML Vitebsk (1st) |
 (1st) |
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 Lincoln Red Imps (1st) |
 Tre Fiori (1st) |
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- ^
Champions League Titleholder (CHA): Since all potential champions have qualified through league position, qualifying will be re-balanced by moving the champion from qualifying rounds with the highest coefficient to League Phase. The top three potential teams are Olympiacos (GRE), Rangers (SCO) and Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR).
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Czech Republic (CZE): Slavia Prague have qualified as they will finish in the top two of the 2025–26 Czech First League.
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France (FRA): Lens have qualified as they will finish in the top four of the 2025–26 Ligue 1.
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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.
- ^
- ^
Türkiye (TUR): Galatasaray have qualified as they will finish in the top two of the 2025–26 Süper Lig.
Schedule
The schedule of the competition is as follows.[6]
| 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
A total of 30 teams will enter in this round.
| Seeded | To be confirmed | Unseeded |
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Second qualifying round
A total of 15 teams will enter in this round.
| Seeded | To be confirmed | Unseeded |
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| Seeded | To be confirmed | Unseeded |
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League phase
Arsenal
Manchester
PSG
Bayern
Dortmund
Inter
PSV
Porto
Barcelona
Real Madrid
Villarreal
Manchester teams
Manchester City
Manchester United
Manchester City Manchester United
As of 5 May 2026, 12 out of 36 teams have qualified for the league phase:
Arsenal- Manchester City
- Manchester United
Inter Milan
Paris Saint-Germain
Bayern Munich- Borussia Dortmund
PSV Eindhoven
Barcelona- Real Madrid
- Villarreal
Porto
See also
- 2026–27 UEFA Europa League
- 2026–27 UEFA Conference League
- 2026–27 UEFA Women's Champions League
- 2026–27 UEFA Women's Europa Cup
References
- ^ Landauro, Inti (20 May 2025). "Spain to host 2027 Champions' League final at Atletico Madrid's stadium". Reuters. Retrieved 30 September 2025.
- ^ "Regulations of the UEFA Champions League, 2025/26 Season". Union of European Football Associations. 2025. Retrieved 6 October 2025.
- ^ "Association coefficients 2024/25". Union of European Football Associations. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
- ^ "Ukraine crisis: FIFA and UEFA suspend all Russian clubs and national teams". BBC Sport. British Broadcasting Corporation. 28 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
- ^ "UEFA decisions for upcoming competitions relating to the ongoing suspension of Russian national teams and clubs. However this could change depending on what happens" (Press release). Union of European Football Associations. 2 May 2022. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
- ^ "2026 European football calendar: Match and draw dates for all UEFA competitions, draws and events". Union of European Football Associations. 15 December 2025. Retrieved 24 December 2025.