The league phase draw for the 2026-27 Champions League is set to take place on Thursday, 27 August at 17:00 BST in Monaco. A total of 36 teams will participate in this stage, with 29 teams having already qualified at the end of the previous season. The remaining seven spots will be filled by qualifiers that are expected to conclude next week.

Format and Pot Distribution

During the league phase, each team will compete against eight different opponents, playing four matches at home and four away. The 36 participating teams will be divided into four pots based on their UEFA club coefficient rankings from the five-season period ending with the conclusion of the 2025-26 season. Pot one will contain the highest-ranked teams, while pot four will include the lowest-ranked teams. Each team will face two opponents from each pot, with the stipulation that they cannot be drawn against a team from their own country.

Current Teams in Each Pot

As it stands, the majority of the 29 confirmed teams already know their pot placements. The first two pots each contain nine teams. Premier League champions Arsenal, alongside Liverpool and Manchester City, are in pot one, which also features back-to-back Champions League winners Paris St-Germain, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Barcelona, and Atletico Madrid.

Aston Villa and Manchester United are making their return to the Champions League this season and are placed in pot two, alongside Borussia Dortmund, Roma, Sporting, Porto, Club Brugge, Real Betis, and PSV Eindhoven. The remaining spots in pots three and four are still to be determined, with teams like Feyenoord, Lille, Napoli, RB Leipzig, Villarreal, Shakhtar Donetsk, and Galatasaray confirmed for pot three. The winners of the play-off knockout round match between Fenerbahce and Lyon will also enter pot three.

In pot four, VfB Stuttgart, Como, and Lens are guaranteed spots, while the winners of qualifying ties involving Levski Sofia and AEK Athens, Slovan Bratislava and Celje, and Hapoel Be'er Sheva and Sabah will join them. The final four spots are being contested among teams in ties including NEC Nijmegen and Bodo/Glimt, Dinamo Zagreb and Viking, Celtic and LASK, as well as Slavia Prague.