Champions League: Draw, Opponents, Format, Schedule

The final seven of the 36 participants will be determined late Wednesday evening after the final whistle of the playoff second-leg matches. They will be distributed into four pots of nine clubs each based on their UEFA coefficient. Borussia Dortmund finished the 2025–26 season in 11th place in the rankings– led by Bayern Munich – with 100.750 points and will therefore be placed in Pot 2.

The placement into the four different draw pots has no direct impact on whether a club faces what are colloquially referred to as “easy” or “tough” opponents. A computer will randomly assign each of the 36 participants two clubs from the four pots as opponents in the league phase. Matches between two teams from the same association are not permitted. This means BVB cannot face Bayern Munich, Rasenballsport Leipzig, or VfB Stuttgart in the league phase.

As in the past two seasons, each club will play four home and four away games. The results will be combined into a single standings table featuring all 36 participants. The top eight teams advance directly to the round of 16, while the teams ranked ninth through 24th will compete in a playoff format to determine the remaining eight participants in the round of 16.

The league phase, consisting of eight matchdays, begins on 8 September 2026, and ends on 27 January 2027. The playoffs will be held starting in mid-February 2027.

The UEFA Champions League schedule, including match dates and kickoff times, will be announced no later than Saturday, 29 August. UEFA has announced that it will post a notice on its social media channels shortly before the schedule is released.