Champions League 2025/26: What we know so far

After qualifying for the Champions League for a third successive season, all eyes are on Europe's premier competition ahead of the new campaign.

We reached the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2024/25 for the first time in 16 years, going out to eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain.

29 of the 36 sides have already been confirmed for the League Phase, and with the qualifying rounds getting underway on July 8, here is everything we know so far about the 2025/26 competition.

What is the competition format?

The 2024/25 edition saw the introduction of the league phase, which replaced the previous group stage, and comprised of 36 teams instead of 32. 

This system will continue into the 2025/26 campaign, with each team playing eight matches against eight different teams, four at home and four away. 

The top eight sides in the league qualify automatically for the knockout stage, while the teams finishing in ninth to 24th place will compete in a two-legged play-off to secure their path into the last 16.

Two of the additional league phase places go to the associations with the best collective performance by their clubs in the previous season. England and Spain performed the best in 2024/25, meaning an extra place was allocated to the Premier League and La Liga.

In 2024/25, we finished in third place in the league phase with 19 points, winning six of our eight matches and conceding just three goals.

Who has already qualified for the League Phase?

There will be six Premier League clubs in the Champions League next season. Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United will join us in the league phase.

Five Spanish teams will be amongst the final 36, with Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Athletic Club and Villarreal making up the La Liga representatives.

Italy and Germany will have four teams apiece, with Napoli, Inter Milan, Atalanta and Juventus qualifying from Serie A. Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Dortmund qualified from the Bundesliga.

There are three sides coming from France, with defending European champions Paris Saint-Germain joined by Monaco and Marseille. There are two sides from the Netherlands as Eredivisie winners PSV and runners-up Ajax both qualified for the league phase.

The remaining spots are made up by Sporting CP, Union Saint-Gilloise, Galatasaray, Olympiacos and Slavia Prague, who all won their domestic leagues.

The final seven spots will come from the qualifying rounds. Five spots are allocated to the 'Champions Path', comprising of league winners from 42 nations. The final two spots will come from the 'League Path', which is made up of 11 teams who qualified via their position in the league in 2024/25.

Do we know any opponents yet?

We cannot be drawn in the same group as any other English side, meaning we will not play Liverpool, Manchester City Chelsea, Newcastle or Tottenham at this stage of the competition.

Due to our UEFA club coefficient, we will be placed in pot 2 for the draw. As we cannot face an English side in the League Phase, we will face two of Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, who make up pot 1 alongside Premier League teams Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea.

While the remaining pots are yet to be confirmed, Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta, Villarreal, Juventus and Eintracht Frankfurt will all be joining us in pot 2, with two remaining places still to be confirmed.

Ajax, Napoli, Sporting CP, Olympiacos, Slavia Prague and Marseille will all be in pot 3, with Athletic Club and Newcastle United the only two sides confirmed as being in pot 4. We will play two teams from each pot, one at home and one away.

When is the draw?

The draw for the league phase will take place on Thursday, August 28, 2025, the day after the conclusion of the qualifying rounds.

It will take place at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, and will be streamed live on UEFA's website. The start time will be confirmed in due course.

When will we be in action

Our first match of the league phase will take place between September 16-18, with five more rounds of games taking place in 2025. These will be held on September 30-October 1, October 21-22, November 4-5, November 25-26, December 9-10.

The final two league phase games will happen in January. The penultimate match will take place on January 20-21 before all 36 sides play at the same time in the final set of matches on Wednesday, January 28, 2026.

How do the knockout stages look?

The teams that finish in the top eight of the league phase will go automatically through to the round of 16, with sides placed ninth through to 24th competing in the two-legged knockout phase play-off.

The draw for the knockout play-offs rounds will be carried out on January 30, 2026, with the two legs taking place on February 17-18 and February 24-25.

After that, the draw for the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will all happen on February 27, 2026. 

The round of 16 matches will occur on March 10-11 and March 17-18. Quarter-final matches will be held on April 7-8 and April 14-15, before the semi-finals on April 28-29 and May 5-6.

The final will be held at the at Puskas Arena, in Budapest, Hungary, on Saturday, May 30, 2026. It will be the first time that the nation has hosted the final of the competition.