When is the Champions League draw and who is in each pot?ByJonty ColmanBBC Sport journalistPublished20 August 2026Updated 54 minutes agoThe league phase draw for the 2026-27 Champions League campaign takes place on Thursday, 27 August at 17:00 BST in Monaco.A total of 36 teams will enter that stage of the competition and while 29 teams qualified at the end of last season, the remaining seven places were decided by play-offs. In the league phase, each team will face eight different teams once, with four home matches and four away matches.For the draw, the 36 teams will be placed into four pots with one being the highest-ranked and four being the lowest. The pot placements are based on the club’s Uefa club coefficient ranking from the five-season period ending at the conclusion of 2025-26.
Each team will face two teams from each of the four pots and cannot face a team from the same country as themselves.
Uefa revealed a new rule on Wednesday that sides cannot host the same team in three successive league phases – so Liverpool will not draw Real Madrid at home and Arsenal will not travel to Inter Milan. Those fixtures could be drawn in reverse though.
The teams who finish in the top eight will qualify for the Champions League’s round of 16. Those between ninth and 24th will enter the play-off knockout round. The 12 teams ranked between 25th and 36th will exit the competition when the league phase is concluded.
