When is the Champions League draw and how does it work?

18 Aug | BY Enda McElhinney | MIN READ TIME |

Source: Alamy Stock Photo

Ahead of the draw for the League Phase of the Champions League, we have looked at how the new format works.

This year will be the 71st season of Europe’s elite club competition when the UEFA Champions League gets underway in September.

As with last year, the format in the league phase will see all competing teams placed into one league table, with eight games each to be played from September until January, 2026.

This will be the 34th edition of the competition since it was renamed the UEFA Champions League and the last two teams standing will clash in Budapest, Hungary, on Saturday 30th May 2026 for the right to be crowned kings of European football.

When is the Champions League draw?

The draw for the 2025/26 league phase will take place on August 28th, 2025 at UEFA Headquarters at Nyon in Switzerland.

How does the draw work?

UEFA’s new league phase format replaced the old group stage format last season and was generally received positively by football fans across Europe.

Once the 36 qualifying teams are known, they will be split into four seeded pots of nine times each based on UEFA’s coefficient system of past performance. The holders, Paris Saint-Germain, are automatically seeded into pot one.

Under the new system, UEFA’s seeding mechanism is designed to create a balanced fixture list.

With eight games each in the league phase, each team plays four home fixtures and four away.

Each team is allocated to play:

2 teams from Pot 1
2 teams from Pot 2
2 teams from Pot 3
2 teams from Pot 4

This is aimed at providing a balanced difficulty level in the fixtures of each of the 36 competing teams.

What is the draw process?

The UEFA Champions League fixture draw sees every team randomly assigned two opponents from each of the four seedings pots.

While the draw is random, it is controlled by UEFA’s sophisticated algorithm that avoids clashes, such as teams from the same country playing on the same day in order to manage broadcasting and logistics.

How are the fixtures assigned?

Once all fixtures are determined, UEFA splits the games so that each team gets four at home and four away. There are no return legs in the league phase, so teams face each other only once.

Each team can only play a maximum of two teams from one country in the league phase.

When are the Champions League fixtures being played?

As with last year, the league phase is divided into eight matchdays. Each matchday will see games played across multiple days, with early and late kick-off times to maximise television audiences.

The eight matchdays for the 2025/26 league phase are:

Matchday 1: September 16th-18th 2025
Matchday 2: September 30th-October 1st 2025
Matchday 3: October 21st/22nd 2025
Matchday 4: November 4th/5th 2025
Matchday 5: November 25th/26th 2025
Matchday 6: December 9th/10th 2025
Matchday 7: January 20th/21st 2026
Matchday 8: January 28th 2026

Who qualifies for the knockout rounds?

The top eight sides in the league will qualify automatically for the round of 16, while teams finishing 25th or lower are eliminated completely and do not drop into the Europa League.

The teams finishing in ninth to 24th place compete in a two-legged knockout phase play-off. Teams finishing between ninth and 16th are seeded, meaning they will face a team in 17th-24th with the return leg at home.

The eight clubs who win their knockout-phase play-off each meet one of the seeded top-eight finishers in the league phase table for a place in the quarter-finals.