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    Champions League

    The top European club competition: league phase format and UEFA prize money

    Football pitch markings seen from above in a gold tone, showing the penalty area and the centre circle

    Regolamento

    The Champions League is Europe’s leading club competition. Its structure has changed fundamentally: the four-team groups are gone, replaced by a single table holding every participant.

    The format in one sentence

    Thirty-six clubs sit in one table. Each plays eight matches against eight different opponents, four at home and four away. No club meets the same opponent twice.

    Diagram of the league phase: thirty-six clubs split into four pots of nine, each facing two opponents per pot across eight matches; the final table sends the top eight to the round of sixteen, ninth to twenty-fourth to the play-offs, and twenty-fifth downwards out of the competition
    One table instead of eight groups. It is the deepest change since the group format was introduced.

    How the fixtures are drawn

    The thirty-six entrants are split into four pots of nine, ordered by the club coefficient explained in the guide to the UEFA ranking. Each club faces two opponents from each pot: one at home and one away.

    The result is that two clubs from the same pot can end up with very differently demanding schedules. That is the main criticism of the format, and the reason the draw is run by software rather than with balls.

    What the table decides

    Position Consequence Advantage
    1st — 8th Straight to the round of sixteen Two fewer matches and a month’s rest
    9th — 24th Two-legged play-off The higher-placed club hosts the second leg
    25th — 36th Elimination None: the European season is over

    The most important change is the last row. Under the old format, third-placed group teams dropped into the Europa League: that no longer happens. A club out in January is finished, which makes every league-phase match heavier.

    The shape of a European season

    1. July First and second qualifying rounds: the champions of smaller countries meet while many domestic seasons have not yet started.
    2. August Third qualifying round and play-offs. Losing does not mean going home: beaten clubs are redirected into the other competitions.
    3. September The draw and the opening league-phase rounds.
    4. September to January The eight matchdays, spread over five months and woven through the domestic calendars.
    5. February Play-offs between ninth and twenty-fourth, over two legs.
    6. March to April Round of sixteen, quarter-finals and semi-finals, all two-legged.
    7. Late May or early June The final, a single match at a neutral venue chosen years in advance.

    How clubs get in

    Most places go to the leading clubs of the highest-ranked leagues, under the mechanism described in the guide to European qualification. A few places are reserved for other routes.

    Route Who benefits Note
    League position The leading clubs of the best-ranked leagues Up to four clubs per country
    European title The Champions and Europa League winners The place is additional, not taken from the league
    Country performance The two countries with the best collective results One extra place each, based on the previous season
    Qualifying rounds Champions of the smaller countries A long road, with elimination possible from July

    The rules on the pitch

    In two-legged ties the away goals rule no longer applies. Level on aggregate means extra time and then penalties, regardless of how the goals were distributed.

    Player lists follow UEFA criteria distinct from domestic ones, as set out on the league pages: a player eligible in Serie A may not be eligible in Europe.