How the Champions League works

In one lineSince 2024/25 the Champions League starts with one 36-club table in which every club plays eight different opponents; the top eight go straight to the last 16, the next sixteen play off, and the rest are out.

From groups to one table

Until 2023/24, the main stage of the Champions League was a group stage: 32 clubs split into eight groups of four, each playing six matches. From 2024/25, UEFA replaced the groups with a single league phase: 36 clubs ranked in one table. The Europa League and the Conference League, UEFA’s second- and third-tier men’s club competitions, switched to the same model at the same time.

How the league phase works

Before the draw, the 36 clubs are split into four pots of nine. Pots are set by each club’s coefficient, a ranking based on recent results in UEFA competitions. The reigning champion goes to the top pot.

Each club is then drawn against two opponents from each pot: one at home and one away. That gives eight matches against eight different opponents, four at home and four away. Two limits apply:

• a club cannot face a club from its own country;
• a club can face at most two opponents from any one other country.

All 36 clubs sit in one table. Where they finish decides what happens next:

If clubs finish level on points, UEFA separates them in this order: goal difference; goals scored; away goals scored; wins; away wins; then the combined points, goal difference and goals of the opponents each club faced; then fewer disciplinary points from cards; and finally the club coefficient.

The knockout rounds

The league table also shapes the path to the final.

• Play-offs. Clubs ranked 9th to 16th are seeded and face clubs ranked 17th to 24th, drawn in fixed pairs: 9th or 10th against 23rd or 24th, 11th or 12th against 21st or 22nd, and so on. The seeded club plays the second leg at home.
• Round of 16. The top eight, again in seeded pairs, meet the eight play-off winners. The seeded clubs play the second leg at home.
• A fixed bracket. A club that knocks out a higher-ranked side takes that side’s place in the bracket. Seeding is not recalculated after each round.

Ties up to and including the semi-finals are played over two legs. If the aggregate (combined) score is level after the second leg, two 15-minute periods of extra time follow, then penalties if needed. The final is a single match at a neutral stadium fixed in advance, with extra time and penalties if needed. The 2026/27 final is scheduled for Saturday 5 June 2027 in Madrid.

The Europa League and Conference League

In all three, the top eight go straight to the round of 16 and clubs from 9th to 24th enter the knockout play-offs.

How clubs qualify

Most places are earned through domestic league position. How many places a country gets depends on its position on UEFA’s access list, which is decided by the country’s association coefficient (explained below). When it approved the format, UEFA said qualification would continue to depend only on results on the pitch.

The move to 36 clubs added four places:

1. one for the club finishing third in the country ranked fifth;
2. one more domestic champion through the qualifying route for champions, taking that route from four places to five;
3. two European Performance Spots, for the two countries whose clubs did best collectively in Europe the previous season. Each gets an extra place for its next-best club in the domestic league.

Coefficients in brief

UEFA keeps two related rankings.

• Club coefficient. In the league phase a club earns two points for a win and one for a draw, plus bonus points for reaching later rounds. Its five most recent seasons are added up. If 20% of its country’s coefficient is higher, that figure is used instead. It decides seeding in draws.
• Association coefficient. For each season, the points of all a country’s clubs are added up and divided by the number of its clubs that took part. The five most recent seasons are added together. It decides a country’s position on the access list, and so its number of places.

This is why results in Europe matter to a whole league, not only to the clubs that play in it.

Where to go next

• Promotion and relegation, explained
• World Cup formats
• TV rights, explained