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2025 2026 brings renewed excitement for European club football, as Fair Play and the Champions League adopt an innovative style and new narratives. Champions League last season winners Paris Saint-Germain are back after a dominant final, and fans right across Europe are looking forward to a new season of drama, tales of underdogs and the best in the business.
Teams Competing in 2025 2026 Champions League
Established Powerhouses
This season, top European clubs are prominent. For England, the six teams are Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur. This season is a record for representation. Spain includes Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atlético Madrid, Athletic Club and Villarreal. Italy comprises heavyweight clubs Napoli, Inter, Atalanta and Juventus. Germany has Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt and Dortmund. French sides will be Paris Saint-Germain, Marseille and Monaco. Let’s not forget the European sides from countries outside the five leagues: the Netherlands (PSV and Ajax, Portugal (Sporting CP and Benfica), Belgium (Club Brugge and Union Saint-Gilloise) and Turkey (Galatasaray), as well as a couple of sides from Eastern Europe (Slavia Praha and Olympiacos)
Debutants and Rare Appearances
A few clubs are making history as they enter the main phase of this competition for the first time or after a long absence. Bodø/Glimt from Norway become the northernmost club to qualify while Kairat Almaty (Kazakhstan) reach this stage as the easternmost ever. Pafos (Cyprus) and Union Saint-Gilloise also join for their first appearances. For the first time in almost twenty years, no Ukrainian teams are in the main phase.
Format of the 2025 2026 Champions League
The New League-Style Phase
The Champions League is using a league-style system alongside twenty-six teams for the second straight year now instead of traditional group stages. The league consists of thirty-six teams, who compete against each other in one table, where each team plays eight home four home, four away against a variety of opponents taken from four seed pots, based on coefficients.
Each team will play two teams from each seed, at home for one match and away for one match. Teams from the same country are not allowed to play each other more than two times to keep competition fresh.
Advancing Beyond the League Phase
At the conclusion of this league level:
• The top eight teams qualify directly into the Round of 16.
• Teams’ 9th-24th will play a two-legged playoff knockout round,
• Teams 25th-36th will be eliminated from the competition and do not advance into European competition
Tie-breakers are determined using well-known criteria: points, goal difference, goals scored, away goals, and others, where required.
Key Dates for 2025 2026 Champions League
Qualifying and Play-offs
Qualification starts in early summer, early rounds in July taking us to the playoffs in late August.
League Phase Schedule
The main phase will run from 16–18 September 2025 until 28 January 2026, featuring eight matchdays in total, with the following dates:
- Matchday 1: 16–18 September
- Matchday 2: 30 September–1 October
- Matchday 3: 21–22 October
- Matchday 4: 4–5 November
- Matchday 5: 25–26 November
- Matchday 6: 9–10 December
- Matchday 7: 20–21 January
- Matchday 8: 28 January
Play-offs and Knockouts
The playoffs take place in mid-February (the 17th/18th and the 24th/25th), then there is:
- Round of 16 : March
- Quarter finals, April
- Semi-finals, May (late April, early May)
The Final
The season will reach its climax on the 30 May 2026, day of the final, at the Puskás Aréna, Budapest. The winners will qualify for the league phase next season, UEFA Super Cup, Intercontinental Cup finals and the Club World Cup group stage in 2029.
The Draw for the 2025 2026 Champions League Phase
The draw is on 28 August 2025 at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco and will be broadcast and streamed across platforms. There will be various options to watch on UEFA.com, TNT Sports (UK), Discovery+, Amazon Prime Video, etc.
Using a combination of manual and automated processes, each pot, along with its teams, is drawn sequentially, using an algorithm to determine opponents and match venues for each team. The principles of domestic conflict prevention pretty much fall off by pairing.
Current Champions and Title Holders
In this season, the Paris Saint-Germain come in as defending champions, winning their first continental title by thrashing Inter Milan 5–0 in Munich in last season’s final, which was played 31 May 2025.
Final Thoughts on the 2025 2026 Champions League
The 2025 2026 campaign will be one of the most exciting seasons in Europe yet. The new structure to the Champions League makes every game matter, while also providing the balance, the different matchups, and the dramatic underdog stories, such as when Bodø/Glimt and Kairat forged their new paths.
Fans will enjoy a fireworks start at the outset, potential mid-season drama for the teams during the play-offs and an exciting finish in Budapest, a real test of strength and determination over nine months of football.
